II Shadows of A Dream: Final Mix
by Krystal Lily Potter
Summary: Completely Redone. The lines between darkness and light become blurred when new enemies arise. It's a race against time to save everyone, and they're losing badly. The only way to save everyone is to look passed the shadows of a dream. SK, RN, slight ROC.
1. Prologue

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Prologue_

Darkness and light. Two extreme ends of a wide and diverse spectrum, yet many preferred to simply see the two ends. So many people overlooked the wide variety of colours in between the two. Was a creature that veered more towards the blackness of the night really more of a monster than a creature that moved too close to the light?

The dark waves lapped against the grey sands of the shore, soaking the tips of her deep violet boots. The light breeze blew her dark purple, almost black hair into her dark brown eyes as she gaze thoughtfully out over the ocean towards the moon. Some things didn't even seem to belong on the spectrum between black and white. She was not a creature of the dark, but she was nowhere near being called a creature of the light. She didn't fit into twilight, because she wasn't actually anything, and at the same time, she didn't fit into nothingness because she actually was something. Even a Nobody could easily be classified as nothing.

She one of her hands from her crossed arms moved, clutching over the spot where her entire heart had once been. There were so many things that couldn't be explained, and she was one of them. All she wanted was answers, and she was willing to walk the path that would give them to her, no matter what it actually was.

She heard footsteps approaching her across the sand, and quickly her thoughtful look vanished. It was replaced with a cold, hard expression equal to any frosted diamond. She pushed her hair out of her eyes again and turned around to face the four people that approached her, moving so that one of her gloved hands rested on her hip between her midnight black shirt and jeans. She eyed the newcomers for a moment before saying, "You're later than I expected."

Two heads slightly looked towards the youngest of the group before looking back at her, and she let out a deep sigh and shook her head. She eyed him, taking in his familiar stock of ice blue hair that looked as if he had stuck his finger in a light socket, and his rather dull hazel eyes. She shook her head again and said, "Do you know how important this object is that we're looking for, Jorix?"

Jorix glanced up at her from his slightly shorter height and said, "Well gee Crissy, you didn't exactly tell us why a little black book was so important. Lose some of your phone numbers?'

She narrowed at her eyes at him and said, "We need that goddamn book. If you need to know, it's a journal."

"Oh, so someone stole your diary then? I thought you were sharper than that, Crysita."

Crysita pressed her lips together and said, "That book is the journal of one of the members of Organization Thirteen. Rumor has it that there were some other notes thrown in there from other members as well. It could easily give us an inside look at the Organization."

"Why are they so important?" the only other female in the group asked, twirling her golden blonde hair around her fingers. "The Organization? You've spoken of them before, but never anything really specific."

"Why? Because they've been the closest thing in over ten years to actually almost reach Kingdom Hearts," Crysita explained. "And you know why we need to reach Kingdom Hearts, Lilanti."

Lilanti nodded, her vibrant purple eyes flickering over to the man beside her as he sighed. She was dwarfed by his height, but in comparison, she seemed to be the tougher of the two. He seemed more like the philosopher type, with his extremely calm features and tone of voice. Lilanti nudged him roughly and said, "Were you going to say something? Or are you just attempt to sound like a big brute, Carverin?"

He shot a quick glare at her before running a hand through his shaggy, black hair, turning his navy eyes to Crysita. "The journal belongs to number thirteen, doesn't it?"

"What would give you that idea?"

"Well, if someone were to know anything about Kingdom Hearts, why not the Nobody who actually seemed to have a heart?"

"How can a Nobody have a heart?" Jorix asked, confusion lacing his voice.

"He was the Keyblade Master's Nobody," Crysita explained. "And you're right, it is his journal. It's one of the only documents left behind by the Organization that the witch Maleficent doesn't have, and it's better than nothing. They almost did it, they almost reached Kingdom Hearts."

"Call this question stupid," Jorix said after a moment of thought. "But how do we know this journal actually exists? I mean, wouldn't the Organization have destroyed it after this guy was killed?"

"He wasn't killed," Carverin answered.

At Jorix's stunned looked, Crysita nodded and said, "Roxas was his name. He betrayed the Organization and left to find his Other. He was…apprehended though, and his memories were erased and he was put back with his Other again. I know for a fact that this journal wasn't destroyed though. It was hidden away. The people who captured him never knew if it would be helpful or not in the future, so they didn't destroy it."

"So, now we need to find it before one of these people show up again and grab it first?" Lilanti asked.

"Exactly," Crysita agreed. "So you all had better get back to work. Look through every alley in The World That Never Was, search through all the rooms in the mansion in Twilight Town, the forest as well. Actually, anywhere in Twilight Town is possible. Just find it."

"What are you going to do?" Carverin asked.

She simply glared at him, and he didn't bother to ask again. Jorix, Lilanti and Carverin quickly turned to walk away, but the fifth person remained with Crysita. She glanced back at him and asked, "Sarlio?"

His piercing silver eyes glanced at her and he mumbled, "There's more than just Kingdom Hearts, isn't there?"

Crysita eyed him for a moment before saying, "There's much more than just Kingdom Hearts. Every little piece of the puzzle has to be put in place perfectly, and it will require some sacrifices on our part."

He didn't reply to that, simply turned on the spot and walked away. She watched him go before turning back to the water. The cold air brushed passed her skin, and she winced slightly. Something bad was coming for not just their opponents but for them as well. She could feel it with every last inch of her being.

It didn't matter though. She just needed to make sure that all the pieces of the events to come would fall exactly how she wanted them to.

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	2. Pieces

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

Chapter One – Pieces

The sun beat down brightly on Destiny Islands, leaving the tropical world warm and welcoming. The deep aqua water rushed up to the shore in small waves, lapping at the black sneakers of the young man that lay on the warm, white sand. His eyes were closed and the warm breeze brushed his spiky brown hair over his tanned skin.

The sunlight reflected off of the 16-year-old's zippers and belts that were on his clothes, and to try and look at the silver chain with a crown pendant around his neck would be a risk to the eyes of the gazer.

He appeared to be asleep, but in reality he wasn't. He was enjoying the day, despite the fact that the sun made his primarily black jacket and shorts warm to the touch.

Suddenly, the alarm on his cell phone went off, and his eyes snapped open, revealing a pair of bright cerulean eyes that he had inherited from his mother. He quickly sat up, cursing slightly, and then jumped to his feet.

Sora quickly retreated farther into the interior of the small island he was on. He reached his destination, the Secret Place, quickly enough and sat down on the chilled cave's floor. There was only one person who would think to look for him there, and he knew that she would indeed come searching for him, but it delayed their meeting for a little while longer than if he had stayed on the shore.

He let out a deep sigh as he looked around at the carvings on the cave walls. It wasn't that he wanted to be inside, away from the sun, but his alarm signified the end of the school day when he _should_ have been _at_ school.

When he and Riku had returned from their adventures in the summer, Sora hadn't expected his mother to start nagging him about school practically the day after he got home, but she had. He had missed a year and a half of 'torture' (as he put it), so for the rest of the summer he was forced to go to summer school. His mother insisted on it. He passed through that quickly enough (with her constant supervision), but didn't get to enjoy his time with his friends. He supposed it was a good thing he went to summer school, otherwise he would have been a year behind Kairi (with Selphie and Tidus), but it still annoyed him. Riku had gone to summer school as well, keeping him a year ahead of them with Wakka, but he still seemed to adjust back to island life better then Sora. It was ironic really, because Riku was always the restless one who wanted to get away, and Sora was always fairly happy with a simple island life.

Sora hadn't meant to develop the habit of skipping school, but in the end he rarely made it a week straight without skipping. The school had called many times, complaining about his lack of attendance and certain policies, but he didn't care. Sometimes, it was like he forgot about going there, and other times he was just too restless to learn about the quadratic equation, or to be lectured about how to use MLA format. None of that interested him anymore. He had enjoyed gym classes, because it let him blow off some steam, but after he skipped so many of his classes except for that, the principal had pulled him out of that class and forced him to go to a study period instead. He ended up getting frustrated and, instead of going, always skipped that class.

His mother started yelling at him because of his habits. No, that was a lie, his mother never exactly yelled. It was one thing that he admired about her, was that she was able to keep calm in most situations. Instead, she would calmly, with a disappointed tone, say what he had done wrong. He knew he deserved it.

Still, there was something inside of him that didn't want to listen. He didn't want to go to school. Who cared about college or earning billions of dollars? Many people might, but not Sora. He knew that there was more to life than having the biggest house or the best sports car. He knew that, no matter what, he had a mission that he would need to do, another place he would need to save.

His mother wasn't the only one who lectured him for his lack of trying at school. Kairi, when she had seen his grades, growled at him for about an hour non-stop. She pointed out that Riku had been gone just as long as him and he had fallen back into habit perfectly. She also pointed out that Riku had actually spent over a year away from home. To Sora it couldn't have felt more than several months because he had been asleep for a year and couldn't remember part of it.

He hated when Kairi was angry with him more then he did when his mother was mad at him. He wanted to make her smile, because he was happy when she was happy, but when one of them was frustrated the other tended to have a short temper as well. He just didn't understand why she couldn't understand him when he said there was more to life then getting 90s in a class.

'_Because she's a girl, and girls are always complicated.'_ A voice broke through his thoughts.

Then there was him.

When Sora started becoming frustrated with school and all of his friends and family, he felt like he had no one to talk to or nowhere to turn for advice. As it turned out, the best person to talk to happened to be himself, or rather a slightly different piece of himself that had his own voice and looks, and ran around in Sora's head at all times of day. Roxas became the one Sora turned to just to talk and vent. There was really no need for it, since Roxas saw what he saw, heard was he thought and sensed what he felt, but it helped just to vent to someone that could actually talk back.

"You're probably right," Sora spoke aloud. "I guess you know a bit more about girls then I do, don't you? For being me, you certainly are different."

The spot a few feet in front of him seemed to glow for a moment before a translucent version of Roxas appeared in front of him. The blond Nobody blinked for a moment before saying, "Thanks, I guess, but I'm not that different from you. I guess I just show the parts of you that you don't acknowledge as much."

"It's strange, we're the same person but so different," Sora agreed with a nod.

"Now I'm sure that's not why you're mind is going a mile a minute and why I'm here talking to you," Roxas said while rolling his eyes. Sora snickered at his other half. "I mean you are technically talking to yourself."

"I know I just—it just feels better talking to someone who can talk back, even if that someone already knows all my problems, and is actually another version of me."

"Alright then, so lets pretend that I don't know what's up already. What's bothering you bro?" Roxas asked while putting his hands behind his head in a very Sora-like gesture.

"Just the usual," Sora said while rolling his eyes. "You know, ditching school and now waiting for Kairi to find me and yell at me."

"She always seems to be able to find you, no matter where you seem to be," Roxas noted.

"It's your fault (Roxas raised an eyebrow at this). My thinking is that you and Naminé are strongly connected as Nobodies, so Naminé feels you out and tells Kairi where you are, because if you're there than I have to be too," Sora said, grinning the entire time.

"You just thought that up on the spot, didn't you?" He didn't need to point out that the idea was stupid since Sora and Kairi had a much stronger connection than their Nobodies did. They did have a piece of the other's heart in side of them for a reason.

"You tell me."

"That's no fun," Roxas shot back. "So, first thing's first, even though I already know the answer, I still want to hear why you didn't go to school today."

"Because it was a test day in three out of five of my classes," Sora said while rolling his eyes. "Grade ten is pretty boring, but I'll admit that I'm happy that I didn't have to go back and do grade nine again. Still, who thinks that giving a test in science, math and English all in the same day is a good idea?! The only escapes I had were gym and history (for lack of testing since the teacher claimed he didn't believe in tests) and they took gym away."

"Yeah I know, I am in your head when you're sitting in those classes and let me tell you, boring," Roxas said while throwing his arms in the air dramatically.

Sora eyed him for a moment before saying, "I wish I could have customized my Nobody."

Roxas blinked once, twice, and a third time before saying, "Why?"

"I would have given you a photographic memory so you could remember the stuff and tell me the answers."

Laughter from both the original and the Nobody echoed around the cave.

"So next thing," Roxas said after his laughter died. "How are you going to deal with your mother and Kairi?"

"Most likely pretend to listen to my mother until I snap," Sora said with a nod. "And you know I deal with Kairi the same way you deal with Naminé. We both know she nags you for not stopping me from skipping."

"She and Kairi are the same person," Roxas mirrored Sora's nod. "It's frustrating from time to time."

"Tell me about it," Sora said with a sigh.

"Here's the big question I think we all want to know," Roxas said after a moment. "Do you really care if you fail school? I mean you say you hate tenth grade and all, so I assume that means you don't want to go back and do it again."

Sora blinked with surprise at the question. He knew he must have thought about it since Roxas thought the question was important enough to talk about, but it had never really occurred to him. Did he really care about school?

Sora had been a straight A student, but he had never really cared like some people did. He was a good student, but at the same time he was never one of the perfect, constantly quiet, always sucking up to the teacher kind of person. Now though, most of his grades were around C (he did get an A in physical education, but that went down the gutter) and dropping by the day. Mind you, he did do fairly well in history because that teacher not only believes that tests were the source of all that is evil, but he thought attendance was a stupid thing to keep track of. If the people passed in all their projects done exactly how this teacher wanted then that was all he asked. Sora really liked that teacher's view of life.

"You know," Sora said slowly. "I don't think that I really care anymore. Hell, I don't even think I'll end up going back. That'll be a great laugh, won't it, the Keyblade Master—high school, grade ten drop out!"

Roxas sniggered a bit before saying, "Do you really think Cloud or Leon finished actual school? Actually, Yuffie's only two years older than you so she definitely should have been in school all those times we've seen her. The only one I could see actually participating in public education is Aerith. Maybe the others went to some kind of military academy or something but a regular, everyday high school? Not so much."

"Tifa definitely would have gotten kicked out for fighting," Sora agreed with a nod. They were just speculating to prove their point, but odds were that all of the before mentioned people would have an actual high school education. "Yeah I see what you mean. I don't know, it just doesn't seem worth it, does it? Could you ever picture me—er us—with a normal job?"

"I did some odd jobs like delivering mail," Roxas replied.

Sora shot him an annoyed look before saying, "I don't think that counts."

"Sora Raiden Hikari!"

Sora and Roxas exchanged terrified looks before Roxas vanished back into his Other.

Sora turned slightly and stared at the entrance. He squirmed a bit as Kairi climbed into the cave, her school uniform ruffled from the squeeze in and a livid look on her face.

Even though her face was red with anger, and her eyes were narrowed in on him, he still couldn't help but stare at her. He and Roxas could both easily admit that they were whipped men obsessed with the young women and her Nobody, that fact didn't bother them at all. Sometimes Riku, Wakka or Tidus would joke about it, but it never bothered him.

She straightened herself up and put her hands on her hips. Staring at him with angered indigo eyes she snapped, "Well?"

"You're beautiful." He hadn't meant to say it, but hey, it was better then the sarcastic comments that Roxas was trying to come up with.

Kairi's cheeks flushed and her eyes softened at his words. She quickly put her angered expression back on though and said, "Stop trying to chance the topic!"

"But you look good in your uniform."

She shifted a bit, trying to hide her burning face. She quickly grasped onto the topic though, making Sora wish he hadn't let his Nobody speak. "Well you don't look half bad in one either, if you ever wore it!"

This time Sora shifted uncomfortably, getting off of the floor and standing up so that he was staring down at her. He wasn't much taller than her, only a few inches, but that was alright with him. He glanced at her for a second before turning away and shrugging.

"Don't turn your back on me," Kairi growled at him as she stalked forward, moving around him so that she was in eyesight again. "You do know that you're just throwing away your future, right? You have a serious problem Sora! You never did this before!"

"I don't have a problem Kairi," he shot back quickly. "I just don't care about it."

"About what? What you're going to do with your life?"

Sora suddenly let out a bitter laugh that startled her. It was an odd sound, because it seemed that he honestly found what she said extremely funny, but at the same time, she could practically feel the sarcasm and the bitterness coming off of him.

"Really? You need to ask me that?" Sora asked as he calmed himself down. He held out his hand, and in a flash of light the Keyblade appeared. He stared at the Kingdom Key and said, "I'm going to have this thing until the day I die. That is my life, Kairi."

"Put it away," she said harshly. "Now! Put it away!"

Sora was startled by the slightly hysterical tone of voice that she was using. Confusion passed over his features when he saw tears building up in her eyes. She let out a small whimper as he took a step towards her, and she backed away.

Kairi shook her head violently and she said, "You've changed. You promised you wouldn't."

"You told me not to change," Sora admitted. "But I never promised that I wouldn't. You can ask a person not to change Kairi when they're just barely teenagers. It's not fair."

"You promised."

"I kept all the promises I made you to!" he growled at her angrily. "I kept every goddamn one because I would never lie to you. I didn't lie to you about any of the promises that we made, and I'm not going to trying and lie by saying I'll be here living a normal life. Who knows, maybe you will, but I won't." He hated seeing her in tears, but he just needed to get away from her. He couldn't look into those indigo orbs, knowing that he was the cause for the pain in them.

Without a word, he brushed passed her and ducked out of the cave.

Kairi watched him leave before she stumbled back, slumping down to the cold floor against the wooden door.

Naminé appeared beside her, just as transparent as Roxas appeared to Sora. She sighed, and looked up at the picture Sora and Kairi drew when they were younger. Naminé didn't speak to her Other much, not like Roxas and Sora did, but this was something she needed to discuss with Kairi.

"He had to change, you know," she said slowly. "Sora was such a sweet, innocent kid when his Keyblade came to him. It was only natural that he had to change. He needed to become a warrior to survive. He's gone through hell and back, all for you. You should be happy that the changes haven't been quite as dramatic as they probably should have been."

Kairi nodded and looked at her shoes as she asked, "What if he changes so much, that he doesn't care about me anymore? I don't think I could…I mean, we're only teenagers. Everybody thinks they know what they want, what they need when they're our age, but we don't. What if he just doesn't need me anymore?"

"It's true, most sixteen year olds think they can take on the world without consequence," Naminé agreed. "And they'll change as they get older, but Kairi, what's between you and Sora can't change. It's almost like hardwired into fate itself. Even if you had never been forced away from Radiant Garden when you were younger, odds are you still would have ended up with him at one point of time. Don't worry about that."

Kairi wiped the tears off of her cheeks as she said, "I wish things didn't have to change, ever."

She couldn't have known that the changes were going to turn for the worst.

**Jiminy's Journal**

**Sora Hikari** – Chosen wielder of the Keyblade. Sora was fourteen when the Keyblade first came to him and his home was destroyed. After searching the universe for his friends, Sora managed to defeat Ansem (Xehanort's Heartless) and restore the worlds. A year after falling asleep in Castle Oblivion so Namine could rearrange his memories, he woke up and went on a new mission to destroy Organization XIII.

**Roxas** – Nobody of Sora. He was once the thirteenth member of Organization XIII. Almost identical to Sora in everyway (with a few changes), Roxas is much more moodier and tends to be angered quickly, implying that, despite being a Nobody, he too had a heart. He is able to weild a Keyblade like Sora can.

**Kairi Kokoro** – One of the seven Princesses of Heart. She was taken from her home in Radiant Garden to Destiny Islands as a young child where she met Sora and Riku. When the islands were destroyed, her heart went into Sora for protection. After Sora defeated Ansem she returned home where she waited for her friends until Axel appeared. She was captured by Organization XIII, and in The Castle That Never Was, it was revealed that she too could use a Keyblade.

**Naminé** – Nobody of Kairi. She is the only known Nobody to not have an anagram of her Other's name with an X in it. She was a prisoner of Organization XIII in Castle Oblivion until Sora rescued her. She watched over Sora while he was asleep and she put his memories back together. She has the ability to change the memories of Sora and those connected to him, and when she draws something, she can make it real. In theory, she can use a Keyblade as well.

Destiny Islands – A tropical backwater world. It was destroyed by the darkness before being reborn. Almost none of the inhabitants remember this. Home world of Sora, Kairi, and Riku.

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	3. Never Alone

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Two – Never Alone_

Sora never did go home to see his mother. He could already recite most of her regular speech by heart. The parts he missed Roxas would remember, and together they could give themselves the lecture that Mrs. Hikari would have waiting for them.

Instead, Sora decided to walk around on the inland of their small island. He had to admit that, when he was gone, the thing he missed most about these islands was either laying out on the beach or walking through the tropical forests.

'_Here was me thinking that the thing you missed most about this place was Kairi,'_ Roxas joked.

"No comments from you," Sora whispered. "I feel bad enough for just wandering away from her earlier."

Roxas said nothing, but he heard him snicker.

After that conversation, he found a comfortable place to lie down to try and sort out his thoughts. That had proved to be useless as he just kept having random, and sometimes embarrassing conversations with Roxas when a certain topic breeched his mind, namely a pretty girl with deep red hair (or, when he got the chance to tease Roxas, her equally pretty blonde-haired Nobody).

Still, the warm, calm air eventually lulled Sora into a comfortable sleep.

**VVVVVVV**

Mrs. Hikari sat in her spotless kitchen, staring at the door with a stern expression on her face and her posture perfect as ever. Her hands grasped tightly onto the cup of lemonade she had been drinking earlier. Her eyes darted to the clock, then to the window to see the now dark sky. Her ocean blue irises, the ones her son had inherited, held an angry but worried look to them. She didn't understand what was happening to her boy, why he was turning into such a rebellious teenager. She had raised him as best as she could, hadn't she? His father, Raiden, had died when he was only a few months old, and she had taken care of her son alone ever since. She had tried to raise him as a polite, kind, gentleman that her father (Sora's grandfather) would have been proud of, but where had she gone wrong? Maybe it had to do with—

She shook her head and her dark blonde hair fell in her face. She wasn't quite sure what she was thinking before, but it didn't matter. She knew that Sora would have a hard time sinking back into normal life, but she hadn't known that it was going to be this hard for him. She had to curse herself for growling at him as much as she did. She was slowly starting to see that lecturing wasn't going to solve his problem.

Sometimes she worried that, when he left in the mornings either to go to school or lord knows where, that he would never come back. It was a terrible thought, but she could see some logic in it. She hadn't been the nicest person recently and she knew that he was annoyed with her constant nagging. She also knew that he would have to leave eventually (he had told her so several times) and she worried that he would just go and not come back.

On the days like this, when it was nightfall and he still wasn't home, was when she really began to worry. She was always scared that he would vanish just like Ventus had.

She blinked at the odd though. Ventus? She had never known anyone named Ventus. She was meant to think the name Raiden instead. Worry was doing odd things to her mind.

Slowly, Ayame Hikari stood up and walked over to the phone. Carefully she dialed the phone number of the one person that she knew who would have seen Sora today.

"Hello?" a sweet voice on the other end asked.

"Hello Kairi."

"Oh, Mrs. Hikari, what can I help you with?" Kairi asked, even though she already knew what the older lady was going to ask.

"Have you seen Sora today? He hasn't come home yet."

"I saw him earlier on the other island," Kairi replied. "He wasn't in too good a mood."

"Oh, well, if you see him walking by your place, yell at him to hurry it along."

"Yes ma'am," Kairi replied before quickly hanging up.

"Oh Sora," Ayame said as she sat down again. "Don't you see how we're all worried about you baby?"

**VVVVVVV**

He was falling, but was barely aware of it. His eyes that were closed slowly opened and he looked around with confusion. It was like he was falling through water. Slowly his body flipped over and he carefully landed on his feet.

For a moment Sora stood in confusion until the darkness under his feat started to rapidly vanish and doves flew off in its place. He looked down at the stained-glass floor and realized that he was looking at an image of himself. The large image of him started in the center and ended in the far right corner, around the edges of the platform lay pale blue pictures of Riku, Donald, Goofy, Kairi and in the three other open corners were images of King Mickey, Naminé and Roxas.

Confusion stood out on Sora's face as nothing happened for a moment. Carefully he walked towards the edge and looked down it and saw many other platforms below him. There was one for each Princess of Heart (his eyes lingered on the one of Kairi), then the three-heart platform, and there were many circles he could see, but their platforms weren't brightly lit like his was.

"I don't understand," Sora said after a moment. "Why am I here?" His voice echoed around him. "Roxas?" No answer.

Sora looked around, not nervously but with confusion. He was completely alone and nothing was happening. It was odd, since he had never truly been alone over the past two years, especially since Roxas had become part of him again.

"Don't be afraid," a voice whispered. Sora looked around quickly, trying to figure out where it was coming from. "Don't stop fighting Sora. The battles have yet to begin. An enemy with a darker purpose is coming."

"What does that mean? What darker purpose?" Sora called out.

"Don't stop fighting, and hold close what is dear to you," the voice whispered before completely fading out.

Sora looked around with confusion and yelled in shock as the platform shattered under him and he started falling. He crashed through the three-heart platform, Belle's, Aurora's, Snow White's, all of them. He felt the glass cut and tear at his skin as he closed his eyes tightly and kept on falling.

**VVVVVVV**

"Sora!"

A terrified yelp escaped Sora's lips as he shot up. His cerulean blue eyes looked around and he flinched and automatically backed away from Roxas' translucent image. He looked around, breathing in and out deeply.

"What happened?" Roxas asked, fear standing out in his voice.

"I-I don't know," Sora said after he calmed himself down. "A dream?"

Roxas shook his head and said, "No, I don't think so. We do have separate dreams, as odd as that is, but I can still always feel you there. This time though, it was like you were gone. I appeared beside you to see what was happening, and physically you were there but your mind wasn't."

"I was on the platforms," Sora said. "The stained glass ones. Someone told me that the darkness, a darkness worse than even Organization XIII was coming."

Roxas knew what platforms his Other was talking about, the same ones that they had fought on. He looked at the ground thoughtfully and said, "Was there anything else?"

"Yeah," Sora said. "The voice told me to keep what was dear to me close. I got the impression, yes from just the voice, that this was going to be a hard fight and that bad things were going to happen."

"Maybe," Roxas said. "It's easy to tell what you should keep close to you though."

"Kairi," Sora said quickly. "…and Riku too."

Roxas looked like he was about to laugh but stopped when they both heard a rustling sound. Both stood up quickly, and Roxas vanished again.

Sora carefully stepped forward then jumped backwards as a Heartless appeared in front of him. His Keyblade appeared in his hand and he was about to attack it when he noticed something odd: it wasn't attacking him.

Blinking with confusion he hesitantly took a step towards the creature and noticed that it was smaller than normal…much smaller. It's beady yellow eyes looked up at him before it wailed, in the most horrible voice Sora had ever heard, "HELP!"

Sora stared at it in surprise as it vanished into the ground and didn't come back.

"I'm going completely nuts," he said. "Heartless aren't that tiny and they don't talk. This is what I get for talking to my other self all the time."

'_Your not crazy,'_ Roxas said in his mind. _'That little thing was real.'_

Sora nodded his head and started running back towards the beach. He needed to get home to tell Riku and Kairi about this. He ran as fast as he could and yelled in shock as another tiny Heartless appeared in front of him. He jumped over it and looked back but it was gone.

He tried to keep running when he felt a clawed hand grab onto his ankle. His world flew upward as he fell and the last thing he saw before he felt a splitting pain in his head and his world went black, was a large rock quickly rising to meet his head.

**VVVVVVV**

_**Jimney's Journal**_

**Ayame Hikari** – Sora's mother and widow to Raiden Hikari. She is a proper woman, but not overly so. Her husband died when Sora was only young and she raised her son alone ever since. She does have a good sense of humor too. She's been known to mess up people's names from time to time, and has a habit of calling people by the name 'Ventus', for some odd reason.

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	4. How To Save A Life

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Three – How to Save a Life_

Kairi sighed as she heard the telephone echo throughout her household. She then groaned angrily as she heard her ever-cheerful mother downstairs answer it happily. Kairi slowly rolled out of bed, her indigo shaded eyes looked around slowly as she walked out of her room. She quickly walked downstairs to the kitchen, expecting her mother and father to be there with large smiles on their faces, but instead she was greeted with her father's confused look and a worried one on her mothers.

"Kairi honey," her mother, Mrs. Suzu Yamada said. "Have you seen Sora recently?"

"Yesterday just after school," Kairi replied. "Why?"

"He—he didn't come home last night," her mother said hesitantly.

Kairi felt as if her heart stopped beating and her breath caught in her throat. She heard the sobs of his mother through the phone. The only thoughts that went through her head were, that he couldn't have left her. He promised that they would go together, and he had actually made that problem.

'_He didn't,'_ Naminé's voice whispered through her mind. This calmed her down but then that left the question, where was he?

'_I can still feel Roxas close by,'_ Naminé said. _'There's something wrong though. I can feel him but I can't communicate with him like I usually can.'_

Kairi spared a glance at her mother before turning on her heel and running up the stairs. She rushed into her room, ignoring the school uniform that she had neatly placed out the right before. It ended up in a crumpled state on the floor as she fished her normal clothes out of her dresser and quickly replaced her pajamas with them and running a brush through her hair.

She barely listened as her mother called her name as she streaked down the stairs, only stopping to put her shoes on.

"Kairi! Where are you going?" her father, Daisuke, called out to her. "You have to get to school."

"I'm not going," she replied quickly and went to sprint out the door but her father's strong, yet gentle grip held her in the house.

"What was that young lady?"

Kairi wrenched her arm out of his hand, as she said, "No daddy, I'm going to find Sora and I don't care what you say!" Before he could say anything else she ran out the door and was out of sight.

**VVVVVVV**

Selphie walked down the road towards the school, walking off to the side of Wakka and Tidus. Riku walked a few feet in front of thing, ignoring them all. Selphie looked at him and couldn't help but be amused at the tall young man in the school uniform. He just didn't look like Riku in those clothes.

Her deep green eyes flickered to the ocean and a frown appeared on her face as she heard Tidus whisper, "I wonder if Sora's going to be at school today."

"Probably not," Wakka replied with his thick accent.

In front of her, Selphie saw Riku shift uncomfortably, obviously having heard the small conversation as well. She knew he defended Sora, saying that the younger boy had been through a lot and was under a lot of stress at the moment, but even he was starting to see that his best friend may have a problem.

She turned her gaze again and stopped walking at what she saw. There, running towards the dock in her normal clothes, was Kairi.

"Kairi?" she called out, but the other girl ignored her. The three boys stopped walking, and Riku's bright green eyes automatically snapped to the figure of his running friend.

Kairi ignored them and practically lunged at her boat. She quickly untied it and started paddling madly.

"Maybe she's just going to hang out with Sora for the day," Tidus suggested.

"Maybe," Riku agreed after a minute. Wakka and Tidus continued on their way but Riku and Selphie continued staring at their friend.

They looked at one another before Selphie said, "We should probably get to school. I imagine if anything's wrong Kairi would call on her cell. You have yours, right?"

Riku nodded, patting his pocket where his cell phone was hidden. Slowly, and hesitantly, he allowed Selphie to start dragging him towards the school, but his mind was back with his two absent friends.

**VVVVVVV**

Kairi felt her heart skip a beat when she found Sora's boat tied tightly to the dock where it was the prior day. Kairi jumped into the shallow water, ignored the fact that she didn't tie up her own boat and started running. She scanned the area in front of her, looking for any sign of the boy in question.

She ducked into their Secret Place, but he wasn't there. She refused to give up, but her constant running eventually caught up to her and she needed to stop for a moment. She wasn't nearly as athletic as her two male friends, but she had been trying to keep up with them. She could feel herself panicking though, and it wasn't a good combination with constant running.

"Kairi," Naminé said suddenly, startling Kairi as she appeared in front of her. Naminé was usually quiet and rarely ever talked to her Other, but recently she had been showing up and making herself more and more known. "I think you're searching the wrong way."

"What?" Kairi asked.

"I can still feel Roxas," the blond girl replied. "It's stronger than when we were at your house. They're here somewhere. Search with your heart, not your eyes."

Kairi stared at her Nobody before closing her eyes, if Naminé could so easily sense Roxas, then it made sense that she would be able to feel Sora just as easily. She stood there for a moment until she felt a tug at her heart. Her eyes flew open and she started running wordlessly, her Nobody keeping up with her but not vanishing yet.

Finally, she saw something in the distance, a large lump on the ground. Naminé gasped as they drew close enough to see it's features and Kairi let out a scream.

"Sora!"

She dropped down beside him and carefully rolled him over onto his back. There was a large, dark bump on her head that was caked with blood. He didn't stir as she moved him and fear coursed through her body.

She leaned down and listened for a heartbeat, breathing, anything! She thanked Zeus, Santa, and everyone else in all the worlds when she found both.

"What happened?" Naminé asked, but Kairi knew she wasn't expecting an answer. Roxas didn't appear, so she knew that Sora was deeply unconscious.

Tears started streaking down Kairi's cheeks as she whispered, "Sora, Sora please wake up. Please Sora!"

"Kairi," Naminé whispered as she started to vanish. "Call Riku. You need to get him to a hospital."

Kairi gently laid Sora's head in her lap and quickly hauled out her cell phone. Common sense would have made her dial 911, not Riku, but common since wasn't something she (or Naminé for that matter) possessed at the moment.

**VVVVVVVVVVVV**

Riku didn't jump or make any obvious motion as his cell phone vibrated in his pocket. He continued staring at his dull teacher before quickly raising his hand, asking to be excused. The teacher didn't even notice that he had grabbed his books to take with him.

The ringing stopped so Riku picked up his pace. He got to the male's bathroom and flipped his phone open keeping a calm face when he saw that it was Kairi who had called him. He quickly dialed her number and she answered right away.

"R-Riku," she choked out between sobs.

He felt panic prickle through him and said, "What's the matter Kairi?"

"I f-found Sora," she sobbed. "No one knew where he was. I'm on the island and he's unconscious and bleeding and I—"

"I'll be there as soon as possible," Riku replied quickly. "Keep something pressed to the wound, alright?"

He could hear Kairi sob again but she didn't reply, just clicked her phone shut.

Riku didn't hesitate to run out of the school, almost colliding with the principal on his way out. All he knew was that his friends needed help and they needed it now.

**VVVVVVV**

Kairi kept the edge of her skirt pressed gently to Sora's head. She rocked him back and forth slightly and was singing under her breath. A small groan escaped Sora's lips, but he didn't wake up.

Suddenly Roxas appeared in front of Kairi, startling her badly enough to cause her to yelp. He looked at her and then at Naminé, who had also appeared.

"Roxas, what happened?" Naminé asked while placing a hand on his shoulder.

"I can't remember," Roxas admitted. "That's locked in the part of Sora's mind that still unconscious."

Kairi was about to ask him another question when they heard the sounds of footsteps running towards them. Distantly they heard someone yelling Kairi's name.

The girl in question looked around with fear in her eyes before noticing that both Roxas and Naminé had vanished again. She turned her head in the direction of the voice until she saw Riku appear on the path, running in the opposite direction.

"Riku!" she yelled out.

He slid to a stop and turned around, running towards her now. She was slightly surprised when her father, as well as her mother and Sora's mother made their way behind him.

Ayame let out a small sob when she saw her son and knelt down next to him, placing a hand on his arm. She didn't say anything, but her body shook as she controlled her tears and kept her emotions as quiet as possible.

Daisuke knelt down and said, "We need to get him to a hospital, that bump looks pretty bad and I'm positive that he'll have a concussion from smashing his head on that rock."

Kairi whimpered lightly as her dad took the young man out of her arms. Her father grunted a bit under Sora's weight and muttered, "He's heavier than I remember."

Riku came over to steady the middle-aged man and they started speed walking back to the docks where the Yamada family's semi-large boat was waiting.

Kairi felt hopelessness weld up in her chest as her mother encouraged her and Mrs. Hikari to get up. They quickly walked after the boys, the entire time Kairi felt as if she were in a nightmare.

'Please be ok,' Kairi thought to Sora, hoping that, somehow, he could hear her. 'Please Sora! I swear I won't nag at you anymore for school or anything. Please just be alright.'

**VVVVVVV**

_**Jimniy's Journal**_

**Suzu Yamada** – Kairi's adoptive mother. She is an overly cheerful woman but does worry easily. She is rather a big pushover but would do anything for her adopted daughter.

**Daisuke Yamada** – Kairi's adoptive father. When she first appeared on the islands he was the mayor and took her in as his daughter. Having lost the previous election, he stays home with his family.

**Selphie Tilmitt** – Selphie is a year younger than Sora, and is a rather hyper girl. She is Kairi's best female friend on Destiny Islands. She usually spends her time with Tidus and Wakka, and uses a skipping rope as a weapon.

**Tidus** – A young man who is the same age as Selphie with a love for competition. He's one of Sora's friends on Destiny Islands. He's a stubborn boy and uses a staff as his weapon.

**Wakka** – A boy the same age as Riku, and Tidus's best friend. He loves Blitzball so much that when he fights he uses his blitzball as a weapon.

**Riku Keimei** – Riku is a 17-year-old boy who is best friends with Sora and Kairi. When the Heartless came to Destiny Islands he gave into the powers of darkness and ended up being possessed by Xehanort's Heartless. Later on he even took the appearance of Ansem as he watched over his friends and messed with the Organization's plans. He became normal again and helped Sora destroy Xemnas before returning home.

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	5. Savin' Me

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Four – Savin' Me_

The darkness surrounded Sora, causing him to feel both lost in a wide, open area and trapped within a tiny space. He had tried to call out to Roxas many times, but he could never find him. Sora wasn't the brightest person alive, but he did know that if he couldn't find himself, then something was definitely wrong. It felt bitterly cold in the dark, and his head was throbbing painfully. He had tried summoning his Keyblade, but it too seemed to have abandoned him in the smothering darkness.

When he was younger, he had been told that if he was ever lost not to run around, because odds were that he would make himself more lost. He didn't want to stay in one place though, feeling as if the blackness would consume him if he did.

He was scuffing his shoes along the ground, not bothering to really lift his feet. He wasn't technically walking on anything, so why bother? It wasn't like he was going to trip over anything.

It seemed some powerful being was intent on proving Sora wrong. He stumbled over something, grunting in surprise as he fell onto his hands and knees. Turning slightly, he looked around to see what he had tripped over, and a confused look passed across his features. There was a small rise of what looked like glass or crystal stretching across the gound. He reached forward to touch it, but jerked his hand back when it started spreading. It formed a circle around him, and before he could stand up, tentacles of the shining object rushed across the ground, latching onto his legs. He grunted and tried to move, but he couldn't.

He stopped struggling, realizing it was futile. As he did though, his legs started to sting under their crystal prison. Soon that sting turned into an ache, before turning into a stabbing, lasting pain. Breathing heavily, he tried to move again, but it only made the pain worse.

"Poor little Keyblade Master, no way to move, and nowhere to go if you could," a female's voice rang out sharply in the silence.

Sora's head jerked around as he tried to look for the voice. Everything remained black; the only bits of colour were him and the gemstones that were holding him in place. "Who are you?" he called out. "Show yourself."

"Are you sure that's what you want?" she asked. "Are you sure you really want me to come over to you when you have no way to get away from me?" There was a silence before she said, "Very well."

Sora could hear light footsteps echoing around him, causing his headache to pound more. A moment later, he could see the faint outline of a young woman who couldn't have been much older than he was. As she moved closer, he could start to make out her features. She wore mostly black, with small splashes of the same dark purple that her hair was, and her deep brown eyes looked positively excited.

"Who are you?" he snapped at her.

"Wouldn't you like to know," she said with a smirk. "I'll admit, I'm not all that impressed. The powerful Keyblade Master, locked within the pitiful amount of darkness of his own heart and lost in it." She walked around him in a circle, like a predator eyeing her cornered prey. "Ironic, because this darkness you're in is such a small space. There's barely any inside of you as is."

With an angry grunt, Sora reached out his hand to try and summon his Keyblade again, when the crystal around him seemed to jut up, encasing his arm that was held out. The arm that was at his side was also encased in crystal as it started surrounding his body.

"Now Sora," she said. "I can't have you breaking away just yet. I'm not done with you." She moved her hand and the crystal moved with it, causing him to change position in the process. Soon Sora felt himself locked down onto the floor, his arms and legs held down. The dark figure came over and sat down beside him, looking mildly amused. "I would have rather spoke to Roxas, but beggars can't be choosers."

"What do you want?" he choked out.

"What do you remember?" she asked him curiously. She reached a hand out and touched his crown pendant.

"What?"

"About anything. Your past, your Nobody's past, anything," she asked him.

"I don't know what you want."

"Do you ever wonder why you're known as the Keyblade Master? The chosen one above others? Even when Riku is physically more powerful than you, Kairi has more light than you, and Mickey is more experienced than you? What makes you so special?" She asked him as she leaned over a bit, looking him directly in the eyes.

"I—" he faltered, "I don't know. What does it matter?"

She smirked a bit and moved back away so that she wasn't leaning over him. "That's good, you really don't know. That makes my job a lot easier for now."

"Your job? Who are you? What do you want?"

She leaned so that her arms and her back were resting on his stomach, like he was some sort of log. She moved her hand to his arm, and suddenly brought it down on his crystallized arm. He let out a yell of pain as it cracked under her hand. She smirked a bit and said, "I can make you wish you were never born because of pain, and you couldn't do anything about it. Unfortunately, this isn't your physical body, so I can't do anything like kill you, but I can make you miserable."

Sora tried to move away from her, but he was still locked in place. She moved over again and a crystal staff appeared in her hand. She twirled it around for a moment before bringing it down onto his legs swiftly. He let out a yell of pain as the crystal cracked, and even though it wasn't his physical body, he felt as if the small shards that had snapped off were drilling into his skin.

He couldn't help but cry out in pain with every strike, no matter how much he tried to muffle it. This was agony. Not even stabbing himself in the heart had hurt this much. He wished the pain would stop more than anything else.

Even if it meant dying.

**VVVVVVVVVVV**

"Ayame Hikari?" a strict looking doctor asked as he walked towards the woman in question. She looked so nervous, sitting there waiting to hear news on her son with only two other teenagers as her comfort. He glanced over at the two quickly, assuming that they were the boy's friends. He took a second glance at the girl, who looked almost more upset than the boy's mother, if that was possible.

Sora's mother shot out of her seat when she heard her name, Kairi and Riku following close behind her as she met the doctor half way through the hall. She wiped her eyes on her sleeve and asked, "Is he alright? My son, Ve—Sora, will he be okay?"

The doctor cleared his throat and glanced warily at the two teenagers. Kairi crossed her arms defiantly, sending a silent signal that she was not going to be quiet and just go back to the waiting room. Riku stood up a little straighter, emphasizing his superior height and weight over the doctor as if daring the small man to challenge him.

"It's alright," Ayame said as she caught Kairi and Riku's motions, a small smile appearing on her face. "You can say whatever you want to in front of them. Kairi and Riku are Sora's best friends. They'll find out even if I tried to keep the news away from them."

The doctor nodded and said, "Perhaps we should talk in a quieter place? Your son's room?"

"Yes," Kairi said quickly, before anyone else could. Riku rolled his eyes but smirked a bit at her, and Ayame chuckled as the younger girl blushed brilliant.

"Yes," Ayame agreed. "We'd all like to see him."

The doctor nodded and led them into a room. Kairi quickly rushed over to Sora's side, taking his hand into hers as her eyes took him in. His head was bandaged heavily, and it was starting to bruise down the side of his face and around his eye. There were different I.V. tubes attached to his arms, and he was attached to all kinds of machines that were monitoring him. All of them seemed rather alive with activity, which Kairi assumed was a good thing.

"We gathered that he hit his head sometime last night," the doctor said. "You said he never came home?"

"Yes, and Kairi found him this morning on the play island," Ayame confirmed.

"That gave him around ten hours from when he hit his head to when he was found. I won't lie to you ma'am, the fact that he went to sleep afterwards, and stayed asleep, has affected him negatively. He probably won't wake up for a while, and when he does we're positive he will still have a concussion. We made sure there was no internal bleeding or damage to the brain, but there is no way to really know until he wakes up. We're sure he'll be just fine though, even if he'll most likely be prone to headaches."

Riku chuckled a bit from the other side of the bed, glanced at Sora and said, "Looks like your hard head came in handy."

The doctor smiled slightly before frowning and saying, "What bothers me is that he was found on the play island. There are, at most, some annoying bugs and harmless lizards over there. I've never even heard of any snakes being found there. The reason I bring this up is because if looks as if something tripped him by grabbing onto his ankle. Whatever it was appeared to have very sharp claws and almost human-like hands."

An odd look passed over Ayame's face for a moment before she shook her head. Black things with yellows eyes that were oddly flexible didn't really exist, it was just part of her nightmares. She glanced over at him and asked, "What could have done it?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "It's unlike anything I've ever seen, but I don't think it's the first time he's run into such a creature."

"What? Why?"

"Well, he was gone for over a year without a word, wasn't he?" the doctor asked, his eyes flickering over to Riku and Kairi for a moment.

"Yes, but he said he couldn't recall that much of what happened," Ayame explained.

The doctor nodded and said, "He has many old injuries. Some of them appear to be claw marks almost identical to the fresh ones on his ankles, others appear to be from similar, but larger creatures, some look like wounds from sharp weapons such as a sword, and others look like gunshot wounds."

Ayame had a hand over her mouth as she heard all of this, tears welding up in her eyes. The doctor moved Sora's shirt up and she could see some of the scars he was talking about. How did she not notice all of the scars he had acquired?

"The most curious one though, if I may say so, is this one," he lifted up Sora's shirt and pointed at the spot directly over his heart. There was a large gash pale skin that seemed to stand out brightly against his tanned skin, and it was in the shape of a keyhole, of all things.

Kairi let out a small whimper as she saw it. She knew exactly what that was: where Sora had stabbed himself to release her heart. She had never thought about it before, but it should have been obvious that a mark would have been left behind.

She remembered the first time she got the story out of Sora. He had been reluctant to tell her and Riku what had happened. She had been unconscious, Donald and Goofy hadn't had the time to explain exactly what had occured, and Riku had been unconscious as Xehanort took over his body until after Sora had sacrificed himself.

"What could have left something like that?" Ayame asked.

"A weapon of sorts? I don't know. Whatever it was, it at least skimmed his chest. I'm willing to bet it was stabbed deeper and that there's probably some scarring tissue inside of him. As for his heart, well, since he's still here we can assume his ribcage would have saved it."

Ayame let out a shuttering sob. Her baby boy had been horrible hurt, and for some reason she couldn't shake off the fact that her strongest emotion was déjà vu. She had seen those types of injuries before. Somewhere a long time ago, but she couldn't remember where.

She took a deep breath and turned to Sora's friends while asking, "Do you know what happened?"

"No," Riku answered. "I only met up with him just in time to somehow get back home."

Kairi nodded her head in agreement, clasping Sora's hand a little bit tighter.

The doctor stared at them thoughtfully for a moment, his intelligent and knowing eyes boring into each of them in turn. He glanced back at Sora's mother and said, "If you could come with me for a moment, Mrs. Hikari? I'd like to have a word with you in private."

"Yes, yes of course," she said as she followed him to the door. She threw a look over her shoulder and asked, "Stay with him for me?"

"I don't think we could pry Kairi off if we tried," Riku joked weakly as the woman left the room. He let out a sigh and sat down in the chair on the opposite side of the bed from Kairi again. He glanced at his friend as Kairi fixed Sora's shirt and tucked him back in before taking his hand in hers again. "I never knew he had so many injuries. He was always so upbeat, and he never seemed to be injured when I looked in on him."

Kairi shook her head and said, "It should have been obvious. No one can fight something for that long and not be hurt. How many times was he on his own again?"

"Far too many," Riku said with a sigh.

"Don't go blaming yourselves," a third voice said, causing them to jump and look around. Roxas appeared on the end of Sora's bed, sitting while staring at his Other with interest. He glanced up at Riku and Kairi and said, "Although, if you could have just sucked up the fact that you looked like an old man but Sora would still accept you, you could have helped him out. Maybe even brought him to Destiny Islands to see Kairi early on, but hey, whose keeping tabs?"

"Roxas," Naminé mumbled in her quiet voice as she appeared. "Just tell them."

"Tell us what?" Kairi asked quickly. "Is he alright? You're a part of him, you should know!"

"Well," Roxas said hesitantly, "I actually only know about as much as you do."

"What? Why?" Riku snapped.

Roxas shot him a glare and said, "It's like I told you earlier, Kairi. Its almost like he's locked in a part of his heart that I can't really get to. I think if we some how 'unlock' it, per se, then I'll be able to find him and bring him out, but until then, there's nothing I can do. I can't even really feel him anymore. It's like his essence is shrouded in darkness."

"Can you try to look a little more?" Kairi asked.

Roxas nodded, but before he could return into Sora's body, Naminé grabbed his arm. She had a thoughtful look on her face as she said, "I'm going with you."

"What?" they all asked.

"Sora and Kairi's hearts are connected, right? And not just by a small little bond. This one is strong. So that would mean I'm also connected to him. I probably couldn't do this with anyone else, but I'm almost positive that I can go into Sora's heart and mind as well."

"Do it," Kairi said quickly. "Or at least try."

"Better two than one," Riku agreed after a moment of thought. "I imagine Sora's got a lot of empty space in his head."

The two said nothing, but Kairi clearly saw Roxas roll his eyes before he and Naminé vanished back into Sora. Naminé's absence was quickly noted in her body, because even though she was in a room with other people, she suddenly felt very alone.

**VVVVVVVVVVV  
**

"Why won't you just kill me?"

The young woman looked over at Sora, interest passing over her eyes, she decided to take a break for a moment and was once again leaning on her prey as if he were a log of some sort. She poked at one of his injuries, causing him to wince. "Because I can't. All of this is just psychological pain. Isn't it great? Think about it." She moved so that her chin was resting on her hands, and her elbows were digging sharply into his stomach. "I now know the path to your mind. I can drop in and do this whenever I have the spare time and energy. Unfortunately, we can't have these dates that often. There are a lot of more important plans to fulfill."

"Sora?"

His eyes snapped open as he looked around, the voice echoing in the open area around him. She shot up from her laying position and looked around suspiciously.

"Sora, if you can hear me, you have to wake up." He recognized Kairi's voice anywhere. "Please? Roxas and Naminé have gone in to find you, but they can't unlock whatever's blocking them out. Please help them find you."

"Kairi!" he called back, despite his sore throat. The girl kicked him sharply, causing him to wince, but his call seem to have some effect. It was like it automatically connected him to Kairi, allowing her light to find him. In the process, the light crushed what was keeping Roxas and Naminé out.

The young woman growled and looked around to Sora. Her angry look vanished as she smirked sweetly and said, "I'll be seeing you around, Sora." She vanished, as did the crystal that was holding him captive.

He let out a gasp of pain, and he could hear footsteps rushing towards him. He took a few deep breathes before croaking out, "Kairi? Riku?"

"Oh Sora." He looked up, and instead of Kairi leaning over him, it was a horrified looking Naminé. She touched him injuries, and he winced. Roxas appeared a moment later, a murderous expression passing over his face.

They didn't move him, but instead both took one of his hands in their own, and Sora's world turned white before slowly turning into the vision of a hospital room.

**VVVVVVVVVVV**

Kairi's eyes snapped open as she felt his hand finally grip hers tightly. She gasped and sat up a little straighter, causing Riku to jerk out of his semi slumber. Sora's mother quickly got out of the chair she had been sitting in and made her way over to the bed.

Slowly, his eyes opened and he blinked rapidly, the light stinging his eyes. Once he was able to focus, he glanced at everyone in turn before his eyes fell on Kairi and he said, "Hey Iri."

She choked on her own laughter, not even bothering to acknowledge the new nickname. She rested her head over his heart and said, "Never do that again."

"Do what?" he asked, his voice croaking from being dry as he stared down at her red hair. "What happened?"

"You're in the hospital, sweetie," his mother said as she rested a hand on his head. "You fell while you were on the island. We didn't find you until the next morning."

Sora let out a small sound of acknowledgement in reply before glancing at Riku. He could tell by the relieved look on Riku's face that his friend had been worried, but he wasn't going to fall into (girly) emotional bits. "You slammed your head on a rock. Good thing it's so thick."

Sora chuckled weakly, and his mother quickly excused herself to go and get the doctor. Once she was gone, Sora's small smile vanished and he whispered, "Something's coming. Something dark. I've been having dreams, and there was someone there and… there were Heartless on the islands and…we need to be ready."

Riku and Kairi exchanged sharp looks before Kairi brushed her hand over his cheek and said, "We will, but you need to sleep so that you can get better, okay?"

Sora nodded his head lightly before slipping back into unconsciousness. He wasn't trapped in the darkness with that insane person this time though, so that's all that mattered to him.

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	6. Incomplete

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Five: Incomplete_

The doctors had warned him that he would be prone to headaches over the next few weeks, but Sora had shrugged them off. He always bounced back a lot faster than anyone expected him to. This time though, it seemed as if his odd ability to escape any situation without any lasting injuries had left him.

He was staring at the play island, squinting his eyes as the bright light of the sun assaulted his retinas, causing his head to ache. He groaned a bit, leaning his head onto the cool surface of the window, and winced in pain as his mother promptly hit a bump. His head didn't hit the glass hard, but it was enough to cause a streak of pain to fly through him.

Sora groaned again as he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his thighs and hiding his face in his hands. He shot a glare at his mother out of the cracks between in fingers, but she ignored him once she knew he wasn't going to pass out again. She had done that on purpose, he just knew it!

'_Really,'_ Roxas said from within his mind, _'mom is not conspiring to kill you or anything. She hit a bump and you hit your head. Besides, this is a bad road anyway and you know it.'_

Sora didn't reply to that, but he did grumble under his breath. He knew Roxas was right, but he wasn't going to actually say it, or think it. Even though he was thinking it so Roxas would know it. He still wasn't going to think it though. His confusing thoughts weren't helping his headache any.

Ayame glanced over at her son and bit her lip as she quickly turned her vision back to the road again. Worry filled her as she saw her son clutching his head. She had heard him hit it on the window, and though she desperately wanted to turn and check if he really was alright, she was driving. If she stopped focusing on the road his head wouldn't be the only thing injured. She didn't drive nearly enough to be comfortable with many distractions. No one on Destiny Islands did. It was true that many families had cars, but most people preferred to walk or use boats to get where they needed to go. Cars would considered to be something used in emergencies only.

Finally, they pulled up to their two-story home. Before Sora could even contemplate getting out of the car, his mother had somehow managed to turn off the engine, get out of her side of the car, close her door, and was hovering outside of his now opened door with a worried expression. Sometimes he would have sworn that she was secretly a ninja.

He gave her a dazed look as he unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the small vehicle. She quickly grabbed his arm, making sure that he was steady, and quickly started leading him back to the house.

"Mom," he whined, "I'm fine." He was impressed with how quickly she was moving though. Yes, she was definitely in her rare ninja mode today. Normally she was rather strict with him on most things.

"Fine?" she asked slowly. "Is having twelve stitches in your head, as well has just recovering from a severe concussion fine, young man?" Apparently she could be a ninja and still be strict.

"Well, no," Sora replied sheepishly. He glanced out the window as they passed it, wincing as the light magnified the sun's rays.

"Exactly," Ayame said as she marched him up the stairs. "So, you'll be staying home from school for a few more days. I'm sure I won't be hearing any complaints from you about that. You're going to stay in the house, no ifs, ands, or buts, and you are going to rest up. Oh, but you will be doing your school work."

"But—I—"

Ayame glared at her son, and he quickly shut up. It was easy to see that his eyes weren't the only things that he had inherited from his mother. Both of them were fiercely stubborn, but he knew when to back down when it came to her.

"Now go," she said, motioning to his room, "and if I even get the feeling that you've snuck out again, you'll be grounded until you're old and bald."

Sora seemed oddly amused by this, and his mother sighed before saying, "Fine, before you're old and grey. I'm nearly positive you'll never be bald." She ruffled his hair affectionately, but quickly pulled her hand away when she saw him wince. "I'm sorry."

"No, it's okay," he muttered. "You know, I was trying to get home when I fell, right? I wasn't just goofing off or anything. I know you think that all I do is slack off now, but that's no true. I never meant to make you worried."

Ayame's eyes softened as she stared at her son. She placed a hand on his cheek and said, "You look tired sweetie." She didn't like the fact that he looked so tired in the middle of the day, but the doctors had said it was to be expected due to the painkillers. It could have been worse; he could have been acting extremely high instead.

"I am," he muttered as his eyes slipped close and he leaned into her touch a little more. He may have been sixteen, and slightly taller than her now, but he was still her baby and that would never change.

She guided him over to his bed, and before she could tell him to put on other clothes, he was on the old mattress, his head resting on the pillow and a deep breath escaping his lips. Roxas had been equally as tired as Sora had been, and he hadn't made a word of protest to their body falling asleep so quickly.

Ayame Hikari stared at her son, running her hand through his spiky hair. She reached forward after a moment and took the crown necklace off of his neck. Tears welded up in her cerulean eyes as she stared at the pendant before gently placing it on his bedside table. She knew he was out like a light; he was able to fall asleep quickly ever since he was a baby. So she took the rare opportunity to tuck her son after pulling his sneakers off and deeming his clothes comfortable enough to sleep in. They were just a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, no weird chains, zippers or belts like he normally wore. She gave him a quick kiss on the forehead, and he muttered something but stayed asleep, shifting only slightly.

She could remember when he was young and how he had always wanted to be around people. When he was really little, he didn't have the talent for making friends that he would acquire as the years went by. He actually had a very tough time with being bullied when he was in preschool before he had met Riku. He had never been a particularly needy child when it came to toys and such, but he had loved having people around. He had especially loved when people read to him.

She let out a sigh as she stood up from her son's bed and crossed the room, closing the curtains. She glanced at him again, wondering where the years had gone, as she made her way back across the room, closing the door behind her.

**VVVVV**

Kairi hummed to herself as she trudged along the muddy road. The rain had been pouring down heavily for the past few days, but it wasn't a bitterly cold rain and it wasn't hard at the moment. Kairi was conflicted over her thoughts on the weather though. On one hand, she moved through the thick mud as if it was nothing, not caring that her clothes were soak and dirty, but on the other hand, she cared very much that her clothes were soaked and dirty because it made her feel very self-conscious.

It was no surprise that she was feeling self-conscious though. She was absolutely soaked, and she was getting closer and closer to Sora's house with every step she took. She was going to give (and help him with, of course) his homework. This was the first time she was allowed to visit him since he had been home, but not from lack of trying on her part. She had gone over to Sora's house nearly every day since he got home, but his mother always said that he was sleeping, or something similar, like in the tub. The woman had jokingly offered for Kairi to stay or to go get Sora herself, but Kairi had simply blushed and said that she could see him another time.

Really, sometimes she wondered about Sora's mother. Most parents didn't joke to their teenager children, brimming with hormones, that they wanted grandchildren soon.

Finally, she reached her destination and knocked on the door. She heard some movement inside and couldn't help but smile as Sora's mother opened the door. As bipolar as the woman was at times, (she claimed that because she was forty five, she had the right to be) Kairi still loved the woman dearly. She switched back and forth from being a kind, slightly crazy woman that all the children loved on the islands, to acting like a prim and proper lady at the most random times, but Kairi supposed that it was just part of Mrs. Hikari's charm. No one ever knew what to except from her.

"Oh, Kairi honey! You're soaked!" Ayame quickly ushered her in, and closed the door. Seemingly out of nowhere, she grabbed a towel and held it out to the girl while taking her book bag from her.

"You'll get a cold if you keep this wet pack on all day," Mrs. Hikari said. "Since we probably have to go wake up Sora anyway, you can just borrow some of his clothes. I warn you now though, he had to get a different prescription, so he can be a little loopy at times."

Kairi chuckled a bit and said, "When isn't Sora loopy?"

The woman sighed and said, "It's a family thing. We all know it and accept it." There was a sudden, loud noise from the kitchen that sounded like metal on metal, followed by sizzling water. Ayame dropped Kairi's book bag and said, "Oh no! Can you go wake Sora up while I stop the food from burning?" Without waiting for an answer, the woman quickly rushed off.

Kairi blinked a bit, but shook her head and delicately stepped out of her shoes. She hoped that Sora had as much liveliness to him when he reached his mother's age. The woman could smile through the small strands of white hair she found and make fun of her own wrinkles that were slowly appearing on her skin, and that was how Kairi wanted to be too. Aging gracefully with a bit of insanity. Although, she could live without Mrs. Hikari's "hidden" talent for being able to burn anything, even water.

Though she was eager to see Sora, Kairi took her time traveling through the halls of his home, like she always did. She enjoyed seeing the pictures of him as young child, and the pictures of his father always intrigued her. There was always something odd about him, something that didn't quite fit. Then there were the pictures that looked like they were all torn. Neither Sora, nor his mother, had ever been able to explain why there was a bunch of torn images in their house.

Kairi wasn't lost on the fact that some of Sora's past seemed to be missing. The only picture of him as a newborn was one of him and his mother on the day he was born, but that too was ripped in half, his father torn out of the picture. The Hikaris' past was almost as mysterious as her own. It was probably one of the reasons that she had latched onto Sora so quickly. He understood what it was like to not know a parent, and even though she couldn't remember either of them while he still had his mother, he had understood her better than the other children. She also had always had a feeling that something was misplaced in his memories, just like her missing memories of her home.

Hearing Sora's mother working in the kitchen downstairs, she couldn't help but wonder how his mother actually paid the bills. Their house was nothing extravagant, it was rather simple, but it was very homey. Still, as far as Kairi had known, Ayame Hikari had never worked a day in her life except for the things she volunteered for. At the same time, the family seemed to always have enough money to live comfortably. Sora had never questioned it, having joked that his mother sold magik (a common drug made primarily from the leaves of a paopu tree) when asked.

Kairi shook her head. Mrs. Hikari's income was none of her business. No, her business was waking up her friend and borrowing some clothes from him before she got sick.

A light blush appeared on her face as she realized that she would have to wear Sora's clothes. Clothes that he had worn before! The girly-girl inside of her giggled at the thought as she quickly knocked on the door and then opened it, expecting him to be asleep.

The problem was, he was wide-awake. And wandering around his room without a shirt on, Kairi noted before anything else.

Sora turned around, staring at her with surprising. He had been digging through his dresser drawers looking for a clean shirt that actually fit (he really did have to do the laundry soon), and her presence took him by completely surprise. As he eyed her, his expression suddenly turned from surprised, to curious, to something she didn't quite recognize, and then to embarrassment. His cheeks turned red and he forcefully diverted his eyes to the floor, but he kept glancing up at her quickly before forcing himself to look down again. He stuttered something, but couldn't seem to get out a complete word, let alone a sentence.

Kairi was confused until Naminé seemed to wake up in her mind. Apparently (although they weren't a hundred percent sure), Nobodies could sleep at different times from their original selves, which was what the blonde girl did quite often. Looking back, this would definitely be one of the times that Kairi would have wished for Naminé to have been conscious the entire time.

'_Umm, Kairi? Why are we standing in Sora's room? In your uniform?'_ she asked slowly.

'Borrowing clothes hopefully. I think something's wrong with him though.'

'_As much as I know we both appreciate the view, I don't think we're the only ones getting a little peep show. You do realize that Sora's a teenage boy, right?'_

'Of course I know that!'

'_Right, stupid question. Let me rephrase that. You do realize that Sora is a teenage boy, and you are a, call me biased if you will, hot teenaged girl standing in his room? In your white school uniform that seems to have gone transparent so that he can now clearly see that you decided to wear a pink bra today?'_

Kairi's eyes went wide as she looked down at herself for the first time, quickly crossing her arms in front of her as she blushed viciously. "Umm…r-r-rain…visit…ummmm …can I…borrow?" She wasn't about to get a coherent sentence out without trailing off or stuttering, but it seemed that Sora spoke 'embarrassed Kairi language'. He forced his eyes from her figure and quickly moved back to his dresser. He grabbed one of his clean shirts that was slightly too small for him and a pair of the smallest shorts he could find. He stared at the old red shorts with doubt, knowing that even though he was skinny, they'd probably be too big for her.

She quickly muttered a thank you as she took her clothes and rushed out of the room and into the bathroom. She took a few deep breaths to compose herself, not believing that that had just happened. She whimpered with embarrassment as she shed her uniform and pulled Sora's clothes on. As she did, she couldn't help but notice the very faint smell of the cologne she had bought him for his birthday. She had loved the smell so much that even though it was strictly more masculine than it was feminine, she had almost been tempted to buy it for herself. With Sora's birthday coming up though, she figured she could sweet-talk him into wearing it. It had worked. She loved the smell and always felt a little more drawn to him when he wore it.

She tied the elastic around the shorts as tight as she could after she stopped molesting the shirt. She could never understand why his clothes were so big on her, because he wasn't tall or even buff like Riku was. Still, she wasn't going to complain.

Kairi took a few deep breaths to compose herself before laying her uniform out over the bathtub to dry and going back to Sora's room. The door was still opened, but this time she cautiously looked in. He had a shirt on now, and was sitting on his bed waiting for her.

"Well…" he said hesitantly, an embarrassed blush flashing over his face. He shot her a warm grin though, to show he wasn't mad with her barging in.

"Yeah," she said with a nervous giggle.

He snickered a bit and said, "Roxas wants me to tell you something. I'm not sure how you'll take it."

"Oh, like what?"

"That you're a tease."

Kairi's face flushed again, and she was sure that, somehow, Naminé was doing the same. She narrowed her eyes and said, "Well, Mr. Hikari, I know for a fact that Roxas is you, and if he was thinking it that means that you were actually thinking it. So you better put those thoughts to the back of your head, because you won't be seeing that again anytime soon."

"Don't worry," he said with a grin. "That image will be burned into my mind forever."

She glared at him and opened her mouth to say something, when Sora gave her an intense, innocent stare with his big blue eyes that seemed to be a little more watery than normal. She groaned and smacked his arm gently before saying, "Fine, you're off the hook this time, but only since I got a bit of a show too." She winked at him, grinning proudly to herself when she saw his blush. "Now, come downstairs so we can do some work."

"But—"

"No." It was a firm command that was no to be tried with. Kairi had Sora well trained, despite his craziness, and he knew there as no arguing with her when she used her firm voice.

Not even the more adorable puppy eyes in the world could change that.

**VVVVV**

Sora felt his eye twitch, honest to god twitch, as he looked up at the clock with disdain. It had been two hours since Kairi had shown up, and instead of getting to really enjoy her presence, he was stuck sitting across the table from her with thick textbooks, opened scribblers and piles of pens and pencils between them. The situation was so bad in his mind, that he thought smashing his head on the table and knocking himself unconscious again would have been a great idea. He really did hate school, at least most of it. He hated the fact that he had mountains of homework when he could have been doing something more useful, and he hated the fact that this homework was the reason Kairi had such a deep scowl on her face.

Alright, it was a combination of the homework and him. He really didn't have any motivation to write out the essay outline that he was supposed to be doing, and he hadn't really bothered trying with his math. Kairi didn't notice any of that at first, but she got annoyed quickly when he didn't bother going near his science homework. That was when she had attempted to look at his papers to see if he needed any help. Needless to say, she wasn't impressed in the least that he had been drawing Riku's head on fire with a smiling Axel behind him. He blamed Roxas for this. His Nobody (along with the fact that he didn't like Riku, hence the subject of the picture) had borrowed his deceased best friend's fascination with fire, and Sora was sure that he was going to end up dying a slow death of fire from the inside once Roxas figured out how to actually conjure it. He wasn't being sarcastic either; this was a legitimate fear he had.

He dropped his pencil and Kairi's head snapped away from her books and towards him, glaring heavily. She had been reading a passage from her science book, and ended up throwing the heavy book onto the table loudly, causing Sora's glass of water to topple off of the table and shatter on the floor. Sora winced at the sound, and she glowered at him.

"Why do I even bother you with anymore?" She snapped at him angrily as she stood up. "I don't know why I thought you'd do your homework or anything. I just should have gone home!"

Sora didn't reply to that, but he was glad that his mother had left earlier to get a few groceries before the rain got too bad. She really didn't need to hear Kairi screaming at him. She was still talking, her face turning red as she rounded the table to his side. He looked up at her and couldn't help but find her attractive even when she was mad. That thought led to thoughts of her when she burst into his room earlier.

'_No,'_ Roxas said firmly. _'She will kick your ass if you don't listen.'_

Sora's attention quickly went back to Kairi as she finished yelling. She was breathing heavily, and she looked extremely angry. She crossed her hands in front of her and said, "Well?"

Sora sighed and pushed himself up. He took a step towards her while saying, "Kai—"

'_Watch it!'_ Roxas yelled, but Sora's foot had already made contact with the sharp glass on the floor. He let out a few choice words as his foot jerked away from the object that caused it pain, but in the process, he ended up slipped on the water, tumbling backwards and slamming his head onto the chair he had just been on.

'_Gravity – two, Sora's head – zero,'_ Roxas muttered painfully.

"Oh my god," he heard Kairi said as she rushed to his side without getting any glass in her bare feet. He pushed himself up, looking around with a rather dazed look. "Are you alright? Say something, Sora! Come on!"

He looked at her, tilted his head and said, "I'm not going to lie, seeing three of you is awesome."

She couldn't help but giggle a bit as she helped him off of the floor and guided him to the living room. She would deal with the mess in the kitchen later, for now she needed to make sure that he was alright.

Sora was still rather dazed from the second time his head had met a rather solid object in the past few weeks. He was fully conscious, but he wasn't very aware of anything at the moment.

Kairi moved behind him and started pushing his hair aside to see if he had cracked it open. Luckily, there wasn't any blood, but a rather nice bump and bruise were forming. She let out a sigh and said, "You stay here, and I'll be right back." He nodded absently, but that was good enough for her. Kairi ran into the bathroom quickly before coming back with tweezers and bandages. She worked quickly, removing the piece of glass out of his foot before he could protest from pain, and bandaged it up. Years of being friends with boys had made her a quick worker when it came to injuries like this. Not to say that she hadn't had her fair share of bumps and bruises as well.

She checked him over for any more shards of glass, but she couldn't find any. With a relieved sigh she looked back up at him and froze. He had his hands placed over his eyes firmly.

"What's wrong?" she asked urgently as she moved up beside him on the couch. "Sora?"

"When I take my hands away," he instructed, "Look at my eyes to see if they dilate. If they don't, I may have to take another trip to the hospital."

Kairi moved so that she was sitting on his lap facing him, and quickly pulled his hands away from his face. Watching his pupil's dilate, she let out a relieved sigh. Again, after years of dealing with injuries, they both knew that that mean he didn't have a concussion.

"I'm so sorry," Kairi said to him. "I shouldn't have lost my temper."

"No, it's alright," he said to her. She thought he sounded rather vague, but she just assumed it had to do with his head. Sora would let her think that though. She didn't need to know that he was just extremely distracted by how she was sitting on him.

"Are you sure you're alright?" she asked again.

"Don't worry, no worse than before," Sora said, shooting her a warm grin. "Besides, maybe if I smack myself hard enough in the head I'll be able to get some sympathy and get out of my suspension."

"A suspension?" Kairi repeated curiously.

"Yeah. I'm getting a suspension from all of the times that I skipped school. That's the school system for ya: kicking someone when they're already down," Sora said with a small smiled.

"They're kicking you out of school for a week for skipping school?" Her voice let Sora know that she could see just how stupid the concept really was.

"My mom agrees. I heard her talking to the principal yesterday and I think I'm getting in-school instead, along with going to the councilors office every single day," he explained to her.

Kairi suddenly moved so that she was still sitting in Sora's lap, but instead of straddling him, she was sitting sideways. She wasn't really paying attention to what she was doing. Her fingers trailed up and down his back in a soothing motion. At the same time, it caused him to relax and shot shivers up and down his spine. He visible relaxed against her, and even though her actions were making it harder to think, he knew she still wanted an explanation as to why he needed counseling.

"My mom heard me talking out loud to Roxas yesterday. She thinks the bump did some permanent damage. The counselor, Mr. Gates, has been chasing after her for just about ever, so when she asked, he agreed. Better than getting sent to a shrink," he explained.

Kairi nodded before saying, "Everything will be alright. You know that?"

"Yeah."

She nodded again and said, "I better go clean up that mess before your mother gets home. You know that she's bound to have a heart attack if she finds out you hurt yourself again."

"I'll help."

"You're going to stay here," she said stubbornly as she got off of him. "You'll probably end up smashing your head again." She moved to leave the room, but turned around and pointed a finger at him as he started to get up. "Stay."

He pouted but sat back down, watching her leave the room. He could hear her in the kitchen, cleaning up the cup that had smashed onto the ground. He heard a hiss of pain, and quickly jumped up off of the couch, rushing into the kitchen. Kairi managed to clean up all of the shattered glass and the water, but she managed to cut herself on a single, rather big shard that she had been about to throw out.

Sora laughed a bit and said, "What did you say about me hurting myself?" She glared at him, but he just laughed and threw an arm over her shoulder, leading her back to the living room where the Band-Aids still were. She didn't have any glass in her hand, just a long, thin gash.

"Sora?" she asked as he bandaged her hand, sliding close to his side.

"Hmmm?" he mumbled as he dropped her hand and looked around at her. She just grinned at him and nuzzled into his side. His cheeks turned bright red when he felt her breath on his neck, but that was only for a moment. When he wrapped his arm around her, she moved a way just a bit so she could look up at him.

They continued to stare at one another and neither was really sure what happened after that. Neither knew if the other moved first, it was all a blur, but the next thing they both knew, Kairi's arms were wrapped around his shoulders and his hands gripped her waist firmly as they found themselves in a deep kiss. They were so wrapped up in each other that they didn't hear the front door open and close tightly, the safety locks that were designed to stand against tropical storms clicking shut loudly.

Ayame Hikari was muttering to herself as she put the bags of groceries on the counter. She looked around as she shrugged her coat off, noticing the textbooks and papers on the table. She raised an eyebrow at the mess, but shrugged it off. They were probably just taking a break.

She walked into the living room and ended up coming to a complete halt at what she saw. She backed out of the room and returned to the kitchen without them noticing, waiting to hear some noise again. She was a rather strict woman when it came to most rules, but love was an entirely different thing.

She could hear the muttering coming from the living room and said loudly, "Unless I'm guaranteed grandchildren in wedlock, there had better be not anything beyond kissing going on in there."

She heard a yelp and a crash. Sighing, she called out, "Sora, you better not have thrown that poor girl on the floor!"

A moment later, a vividly blushing Sora and Kairi appeared in the kitchen. Both had guilty and rather embarrassed expressions on their faces.

Sora's mother moved around the kitchen as if she hadn't just stumbled upon her son making out with a girl. Instead, she was pulling out the food to replace what she had burned beyond saving earlier.

Casting a glance Kairi's way, she said, "There's a bad storm coming. It's already starting. It's probably best if you stay here sweetie. I called your parents on the way here and told them. Now, if you both want some warm food before the power goes out, please go cover the windows so I can cook."

"Yes mom," Sora said quickly and pulled Kairi behind him. Before they could leave though, Sora's mother cleared her throat.

"I'm expecting you two to stay in separate beds tonight. I thought I'd warn you in advance. Unless you plan on getting married now and giving me grandchildren."

They both blushed again and went to clothes the windows. As Sora went to seal the one facing the play island, he couldn't help but notice just how much this storm was already starting to remind him of the night Destiny Islands disappeared. Something bad was coming, and it was coming fast.

He glanced over at Kairi, watching as she closed the windows. He would take what normalcy he could get for the moment, because he knew it wasn't going to last long.

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	7. Strange

**Shadows of A Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Six: Strange_

Sora sat glumly in the uncomfortable chair, his eyes not focused on the man who was speaking in front of him. His head was still wrapped in bandages so that he wouldn't irritate his stitches, and he was still a little more prone to headaches than before. Added onto the fact that he had no interest about what this man was saying to him, his mind naturally started to wander.

Instead of listening to what the man, Mr. Gates, was saying, he was staring out the open window to the tropical world outside. How he wished he could just get up and go for a walk in the sand, preferably with Kairi at his side. While he was still under almost strict supervision, his mother was definitely more lenient when Kairi was around. He would see her face soften every time Kairi came to help him with his homework. He was actually starting to enjoy homework, since without it Sora probably would have been isolated. He was grounded as long as he was in in-school suspension, but Kairi was helping with homework, so that was alright.

Sora had been told that he was in counseling because of his extreme drop in grades and attendance in school. Sora knew exactly why he was here. His mother had a tendency to hover over him when he was injured, and due to her constant hover had heard him speaking to Roxas in his room one day. She didn't think he was crazy, but she did think that he might have hit his head a little too hard.

She had pulled some strings and favors with Mr. Gates and the counselor agreed to have some sessions with Sora each day. The principal too agreed that it was probably for the best.

"Sora, have you been listening to me?" the man asked suddenly. Sora slowly turned his gaze towards the middle-aged man. He had unnerving brown eyes that seemed to pierce the soul of anyone who sat before him. They were gazing at Sora skeptically, and the teenager knew for a fact that this man thought he was a lost cause. Another kid that started out on the right train but got derailed somewhere along the lines. His eyes had always unnerved Sora, ever since he had met the man as a young child. Mr. Tetuya Gates was an old friend of his mother's since he was only young, and Sora had never liked him.

Sora almost wishes he could have gone to a professional instead of seeing this man. He severely disliked this man, mostly for the fact that he was constantly attempt to convince Ayame to date him. He had a strong feeling that that fact was part of the deal to counsel him, and it made him bitter.

"No," he answered honestly. He didn't have any reason to lie about that, so why should he?

The man sighed and took off his glasses for a moment. He moved a file in front of Sora, and after taking a quick glance at it, Sora knew exactly what it was.

"Do you see this?" He was holding up an empty plastic sleeve.

"What am I supposed to be looking at?" If this man was using Sora's situation to get a date with his mother, he was damn well going to work for it. He wanted to play these kinds of games, bring it.

"The non-existent detention slips," Mr. Gates said firmly. "And the very few lates and absences." Sora stared at him oddly as he spoke. Surely they didn't keep everything from when he was in middle school. As young children, the older kids told them that if they were bad, it would follow them around for life, but this was ridiculous.

The man set that empty sleeve down and held up one full of different colored papers of different sizes. "Do you see all of this? These have been accumulated in the past half a year. Ever since you've been home." He set them down and pointed at his first semester report card. "Your grades have been falling alarmingly quick, and your attendance is dreadful."

Sora shrugged at him and said, "I just don't want to be here."

"Why not?"

"Because it's not important."

This was a new answer. Sora usually just shrugged the question off or gave a random answer that wasn't really an answer at all. It was enough for the counselor to grasp onto, hoping that it was a sign that Sora was willing to talk. It had been almost four days now, and if he wasn't willing to talk soon, the boy may have to go to a specialist.

"Sora, if you don't mind me asking, what happened to you that you and a half you were gone?"

Sora's cerulean eyes met his, and this time it was the elder man who wavered. His bored expression turned to a hard one, and he absently started rubbing one of the scars on his arm. Sora looked away from him and said, "Stuff."

Cautiously, the man said, "Is there a specific reason you don't want to talk about it? Perhaps you're embarrassed with a situation that boys your age don't commonly find themselves in around here?"

Sora stared at him oddly. Sure, going around and saving the universe, twice, from an invasion of darkness definitely wasn't a situation that boys his age commonly found themselves in, but he had a feeling that wasn't the question.

"What?" If Mr. Gates noticed the shift in the tone of his voice, he didn't acknowledge it. It wasn't Sora who spoke that word, but rather Roxas' thought that was so strong that it came out of Sora's mouth in his own voice.

"Well, there are some situation young males can get into where an older male—"

Sora suddenly snorted, quickly catching on. He quickly hid his amused smirk when he saw the older man's glare. No, it definitely wasn't a laughing matter in general, but Sora couldn't help but find it amusing. Leave it to a high school counselor to take Sora's sober thoughts about fighting for so long and twist them around into molestation.

"If you're asking if I've ever been molested or anything, then no," Sora answered quickly. "If you had asked if I've ever been nearly beaten into unconsciousness, then the answer would have been yes."

"Is that so? Why did that happen?"

"Run into the wrong people at the wrong place at the wrong time," he answered. "There's a lot more out there than you realize, sir." The last part he added in as an afterthought. "And not all of it is all that welcoming."

There was a pause and then, "Riku was gone just as long as you were, yet he hasn't had nearly as hard of a time falling into a routine as you. Why is that?"

"I don't know," Sora snapped, suddenly irritated. "I'm not Riku, so why bother comparing me to him? I've never been nearly as calm and collected about everything. We're two different people, in two different situations, and with two different outcomes based on those situations."

Sora turned his attention back to the window. Really, he always could tell the truth, but that was like asking for a one-way ticket to the loony bin and he had no desire to go there now that he and Kairi were getting closer. Yes, Kairi was his motivation, but it worked, so why bother changing it?

Mr. Gates took a look at the clock and saw that they still had fifteen minutes left. Not wanting to end the session on a bad note, he asked, "Your mother mention that you've been spending time with Kairi Yamada."

"Kokoro."

"Pardon me?"

Sora sighed and said, "Her name is Kairi Kokoro. She never changed her name to Yamada. I don't see what this has to do with anything."

His defensive tone was not lost on the man, who stared at him intently. He cleared his throat and asked, "What would you do to keep her safe?"

"Anything," Sora answered immediately.

"Then how sure are you that she's safe with your current state of mind? You're mother isn't the only one who has been noticing the fact that, increasingly so, you've been talking to yourself, and acting as if you're getting answers back. That's not healthy."

"I don't talk to anyone," Sora answered roughly. "And even if I was a complete skit-zo, I still would never hurt Kairi."

"No," Mr. Gates agreed, "perhaps not you, but maybe a darker part of you."

Sora's mind flickered to his antiform before he said, "No." Sora looked off out the window again and kept talking, "Don't tell me you've never had a question that you can't figure out, but once you say it out loud the answer comes to you? All I'm doing when I'm muttering to myself is thinking. I'm not talking to another being inside of me." That was a right out lie, but he wasn't attached to a lie tester, so what did it matter? "I just, don't feel like I can rely on people here to give me the answers I need anymore. There's just so much more out there, so much that no one understands. I don't fit in here anymore."

Once Sora was older, he didn't really have a problem making friends with people. He was always so happy an energetic that he just drew people in. There were only a few that he let into his heart though. It was funny really, because as he traveled he found so many more people to let in, but there was only around two or three in any given world.

When he was younger though, Sora had been a complete outcast. Selphie, Wakka and Tidus had always been nice to him when he saw them, but he didn't have any real friends until Riku, and then Kairi not long after. He had always been a bit odd, and he had always known that there was just something…different about him.

Sora glanced back at Mr. Gates as he broke from his thoughts. The older man had been talking, but he hadn't taken in a word of it. He just wanted to leave and go home. Maybe spend a bit of time with Kairi if he could.

The bell suddenly shrieked, startling both of them. Sora quickly stood up and was about to leave the room when Mr. Gates said, "Sora, wait just a second." The teenager watched him write out a note before folding it in half and holding it out. "Please give this to Ayame."

Sora scowled at the use of his mother's first name. If she could have talks with him about what he did with Kairi (which hadn't been much more than holding hands and linger hugs since the first kiss), then he could have talks with her about the men she dated. He didn't waste any time darting out of the room, not bothering to look back.

**VVVVVVVV**

Finding Kairi was never a hard thing for Sora to do. Her dark red hair was easy to pick out in crowds, especially when the sunlight hit it. Still though, Sora didn't need to actually be able to see her to find her. He always just knew where she was, and he had no doubt that it was the connection between their hearts that made that possible.

He ignored his sneakers squeaking on the floor as he made he way out of the door and onto the concrete steps at the front of the school. He stopped once he reached the bottom step and curiously looked towards the palm free that was out in front of the building. Sure enough, Kairi was there, leaning against it, but she wasn't alone. She was in an aggressive conversation with Selphie, and Sora got very clear 'not-for-boys' feeling from just watching them. Instead, he decided to sit on the bottom step and wait for the redhead to finish with her other friend.

He was only sitting on the bottom step on his own for a moment before Riku walked out of the school. He took one look at his friend and sat on the thick, concrete railing. He glanced down at Sora again before looking back at where Kairi and Selphie were before speaking, "You okay?"

"Yeah," Sora answered.

Riku nodded his head. He glanced down at his friend again before looking out across the schoolyard, folding his arms across his chest. Riku was not going to interrogate his friend. He would leave that to Kairi. No, instead he would act as if nothing had changed at all, as long as Sora didn't seem to be having some kind of mental or physical breakdown. It wasn't said, but Riku knew that Sora appreciated the normalcy of his attitude towards him.

It was one thing to ask your friend who seemed annoyed if he was alright, but it was another to barely give him any breathing room (his mother) or cling to him a lot (Kairi). Not that Sora was going to complain about Kairi clinging to him.

"What's that?"

Sora was ripped out of his thoughts and glanced up at Riku, his eyebrows furrowing with confusion. His silver-haired friend motioned to his hand, and Sora looked down at saw the note Mr. Gates had given him still in his hand, wrinkled from how hard he was clenching it.

"Oh, I don't know. A note from Mr. Gates to my mom," Sora said as he unfolded it and read it.

Riku watched as his friend's expression. At first it had been curious, before switching to mildly annoyed, and then it looked as if he had swallowed a particularly sour lemon. He ended the cycle of expressions with an angry look.

"If I ever meet him in a dark ally, he's going to be introduced to my Keyblade. And not the Kingdom Key. I'm thinking Ultima. It has a lot of tiny, sharp edges."

Riku raised an eyebrow and took the letter from Sora. His eyes scanned it and said, "So this guy things you're losing your mind and that you're starting to show signs of violence? He recommends a specialist?"

"He's bullshitting," Sora growled. "If by showing signs of violence, he means I was glaring at him when he brought up Kairi, then yes, I am violent."

Riku snorted and tossed him the letter. "Your mom will enjoy that. I heard her complaining to my dad about Gates before."

"She had better be complaining about him," Sora muttered as she shoved the envelope into his pocket roughly, fuming angrily.

The elder of the two snorted at his friend before turning around to look at Kairi and Selphie. He pushed himself off of the thick railing and said, "I think your girlfriend's done with the annoying one."

"She's not my—" Sora trailed off, not knowing what to say exactly. He wasn't quite sure what Kairi was to him. They hadn't discussed it yet.

Riku smirked and said, "So she's just a friend you've been glued to the lips with."

"I have not!" Sora argued, blushing brilliantly as he too stood up.

"Whatever," Riku said with a laugh and he clapped Sora on the back. "Have fun with your not-girlfriend."

Sora glared at his chuckling friend as he walked away, but his frown quickly vanished as the redhead appeared in front of him. He smiled warmly at her and wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, burying his face in her hair.

She giggled a bit and slid her arms around him, hugging him tightly. She breathed warmly onto his neck before moving away a bit and asked, "What's wrong?"

"What makes you think something's wrong?"

She moved her hand to cup his cheek and forced him to look at her. He sighed and pulled the note out of his pocket to show her.

Kairi read it quickly before frowning and saying, "Don't listen to that old crank. Your mother's going to look at this and find it ridiculous. You've been a bit of a rebel lately, but you are not violent. I don't think you ever could be."

"I would be if it came to keeping you safe," Sora admitted.

Kairi laughed and said, "I know that. Some people might call it creepy, I find it comforting."

Sora smiled warmly at her and brought her closer. He rested his chin on top of her and said, "I have to get home soon. Mom will most likely have a hissy-fit if I don't."

"Don't worry baby, I'll walk you home," Kairi said with a laugh. "Make sure you get home safe and that you don't get jumped or anything."

"Wouldn't you call that a bit backwards?" he asked her while smiling warmly at her. He glanced up at the sky for a moment before asking, "Come for dinner? You can see mom's reaction to the letter."

Kairi nodded her head and said, "Of course."

Sora let go of her and intertwined his hand with hers. She smiled warmly and started walking towards his house. They weren't walking quickly; instead they took their time getting to his house, simply enjoying each other's presence.

Sora knew he was getting home a little later than his mother would have preferred. He could tell by the vibrant colours that were already starting to appear in the sky. By the time they had reached Sora's house, Kairi was, instead, holding his arm and leaning her head on his shoulder.

Ayame was waiting on the step for Sora, a stern expression on her face until she saw how he was walking with Kairi. She smiled slightly before forcing a frown on her face, "You're late."

"Sorry mom," he answered. "I just wanted to spend more time with Kairi. It's okay if she stays for dinner and then helps me with my homework, right?"

"Of course it is," his mother answered warmly. "You're always welcome here Kairi, you should know you don't have to ask. In fact, why don't you come help me with the salad? He can do his own work for once, I would like to think."

Sora pouted and Kairi laughed. She patted his cheek and followed his mother into the kitchen. Sora was left to his books and his work, and he knew that if he didn't have enough done before Kairi and his mother ordered him into the kitchen. These two women could easily control him.

**VVVVVVVV**

Sora's mother gave him permission to walk Kairi home as long as he swore to return home straight after. No detours, no distractions, just there and back.

Kairi was talking animatedly about the day. From the girl who let her partial dissected frog on the floor in first period, to the bouts of laughter that Sora's mother had suffered through when she read Mr. Gates' letter. She was now making all kinds of references to her son being a vicious monster, but in a joking way.

Kairi's excitement made him smile. She was so happy over the smallest of things, and even though the majority of his day had been a bad one, seeing her so happy made him forget all about the talk of split personalities, violent attitudes and suspensions.

"And then Selphie said that—" Sora cut her off mid sentence, his hand quickly, but gently resting over her mouth. Her hands snapped up and grabbed a hold of his arm automatically to pry it off of her as she glared at him.

"Shh," he said as he slowly removed his hand. Kairi was about to say something when she noticed how Sora's eyes narrowed. He was looking around the area suspiciously, and he had become very tense. His hand flexed for a moment, ready to summon his Keyblade, should he need it.

Suddenly, she heard it too. It was a rustling sound, but it was hard to pinpoint where it was coming from. There were short bushes all around them, so whatever it was wasn't very big, but that didn't mean it wasn't dangerous.

Sora's head snapped around as a dark shadow suddenly leapt out of the bushes. He pushed Kairi behind him as his Keyblade appeared in his hand.

The dark blur stopped moving and Sora was able to recognize it as a Shadow Heartless, and just like the ones he had seen on the other island, it was much smaller than normal.

It didn't move; it was simply staring up at them almost curiously. It suddenly started to shutter and an odd sound seemed to echo out of it.

"Is it crying?" Kairi whispered in wonder.

Sora lowered his Keyblade and said, "It sounds like it. Heartless don't cry though. They don't really think or feel much; they just go on their basic instincts. Feeding off of other hearts."

"You didn't," Kairi said as she stepped around him and moved near the small Heartless cautiously but curiously. "This is even smaller than you were, and I always thought you were the smallest Heartless I had ever seen."

The Keyblade finally vanished, but Sora was ready to summon it at a moment's notice should anything happen. He grabbed Kairi's hand and pulled her closer to him as the Heartless took a step forward, but it didn't look like it was about to pounce. It was shaking, almost like it was scared.

Sora heard more rustling and looked around. More of the small Heartless appeared, forming a circle around them. Still, none of them moved, and they kept a fair distance away from them.

"What the hell?" he whispered with confusion as he looked at them all.

"Sora," Kairi said suddenly. "They're all shaking. They're scared."

"That's what I was thinking too," Sora agreed. "I know Heartless fear the Keyblade, but why would these small ones just run up to us only to shake?"

"Maybe it's not the Keyblade these guys are scared of."

"Help."

Both of their attention snapped back to the first one. Kairi stepped back so that she was at Sora's side and clutched his hand a little tighter as she asked, "Did it just talk?"

"Some Heartless can," he replied. "Ansem, for instance. Anyone with truly powerful darkness in it. But these…I wouldn't say these have a lot of darkness in them."

"Help." "Help." "Help." All of the small Heartless were whispering at different moments, over and over again. It was like a haunting chant, and their voices were shrill enough to hurt their ears.

The pleading only got louder and louder. Kairi turned around and hid her face in Sora's shoulder, "Make it stop." He could feel her tears on his neck as his arm wrapped around her shuttering form.

"Go away," Sora snarled at them and summoned the Keyblade. Even though the weapon didn't intimidate the first one earlier, all of them stopped chanting this time. All of the small Heartless stopped moving for a moment before vanishing.

The Keyblade vanished, and Sora's other arm rubbed up and down Kairi's back comfortingly. He rocked them back and fourth as she cried, trying to get her to calm down.

"Sora?" She backed up so that she was looking up at him with her tearstained face. He used his thumb to wipe away her tears as she spoke. "Sora, I know what they are. I can feel it. Just like how I could feel you, but not nearly as strong. It's faint, but it's there."

"What is?" he asked her.

She let out a sob and said, "They're children Sora. All of them."

He hugged her close again, willing her to stop crying as he took in the information. Heartless weren't picky, they would attack anyone. It was all too believable that they'd go after children, who couldn't get away fast enough if their parents lost sight of them.

He knew how much that must have bothered her. She had always been fond of children.

"Come on," Sora said to her. "You need to stop crying or your father's going to think I did something and he'll probably murder me."

Kairi choked back a laugh and said, "Yeah. I just, they're just babies, Sora."

He didn't have anything to say that could comfort her, and he didn't really have a clue what to do, so he kissed her. From the way he responded, he assumed that he hadn't done anything wrong.

"Something's coming, isn't it?" Kairi whispered when they broke apart.

"Yeah," he replied.

"I'm coming with you this time," she said. "I don't care what you say, I'm going. I'm tired of being the damsel in distress. You and Riku have been training me."

"Kairi—"

"No," she said firmly. "If something is doing this to children, I want to help stop them. You can't stop me."

Sora stared at her before looking at the round and saying, "I should get you home." He didn't want to argue with her, but he didn't want to say that she could go.

She knew he was avoiding the topic, but she wouldn't push it too much right now. She knew he wouldn't leave without her, there was too much that would be ruined between them if he did. If he left without telling her this time, she wouldn't wait for him again, and he knew it. That was why she'd be able to go.

Every hero needed something to come back to. Something to keep them fighting, and she was always Sora's end destination.

**Jiminy's Journal**

**Tetyua Gates** – School councilor who is acting almost as Sora's shrink as a favor to his mother. Sora doesn't like him very much, because he keeps trying to date his mother. He believes that all of Sora's symptoms mean that he's becoming dark and violent.

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	8. Love Story

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Seven – Love Story_

The sun blazed down on Destiny Islands, but a warm breeze that blew through the area combated the searing heat from the sun. All of the islanders knew that as long as a person had on sunscreen, there was relatively no harm at staying outside for quite a while.

Sora, for one, was taking advantage of the day. It was the first time his mother had let him out of the house in a while without any specific instructions on when to be back. Sure, she let him walk to school and back, and she let him walk Kairi to her house and back, but he wasn't allowed to do much else. He didn't understand what she was so worried about anyway. He just hit his head and got stitches, there were worse things that could have happened. He had gone through worse before, but in all fairness he dared not tell her about any of that.

Finally, after getting down on his hands and knees and begging her (literally), she agreed to let him out of the house. Sora didn't feel a lot of pain anymore, and his thick band of bandages were gone, but the stitches on his head were still covered so he wouldn't pull any of them before they fell out.

"Besides," he had reasoned to his mother when he saw she was close to breaking, "you promised to trust me more."

So there he was, on the play island, sprawled out on the sand soaking up the sun. Long ago he had discarded his shoes, socks, gloves and shirts into a messy pile beside him as he enjoyed the quiet day.

He suddenly heard soft footsteps approaching him and he felt a shadow fall over him. He opened his blue eyes carefully, squinting up at a dark, curvy figure above him.

"What are you doing?"

Sora opened his mouth to answer when a dark blush passed over his face as he realized she was only wearing her dark blue bikini with wave patterns. God did he ever love that bikini on her.

"Sora?"

"I…umm…tanning?"

Kairi's happy laugh echoed around as she sat next to him, tossing her extra clothes into the heap with his as she said, "You don't need anymore of a tan Sora. I, however, do."

Sora stared at her for a moment before smirking and saying, "You don't need a tan. You're pale and that stands out here. I like it, besides, you have red hair, and redheads don't tan easy."

Kairi blushed a bit and said, "Eyes here buddy."

Sora too blushed a bit before sending her a charming grin as he looked back at the sky.

"So," Kairi said with an almost hesitant voice, causing him to look at her. "What are you going to do today, aside from be lazy and get skin cancer from lying in the sun all day?"

Sora looked back to the sky once again before saying, "I dunno. Mom wanted me to stay home to do homework."

"You probably should get it done."

"Like I really care," he said bluntly. "It's all I seem to be allowed to do these days. Besides, it's so nice out Iri! I shouldn't be spending it doing something like homework. Especially when I can be here with you." He rolled over as he sat his last sentence and let his arm drape loosely on her bare waste.

Kairi blushed again but giggled and said, "Sweet talker. You know you just roped yourself into spending the rest of the day with me, right?"

Sora seemed to think about this before saying, "I can think of worse things than having to spend the day with a beautiful girl. Maybe we can…I dunno…go somewhere else. Some place we wouldn't necessarily go if we were hanging out with the others?"

Kairi grinned broadly and moved a little closer to him before saying, "Like a date? As in between boyfriend and girlfriend?"

"If that's what you want."

"Do you want to?" she challenged.

'_You better answer yes, or I'll scream at random intervals in your head to make you look like a complete spazz,'_ Roxas said to Sora.

Sora leaned a little closer to her and said, "You bet." Then he pressed his lips to hers deeply.

There was something different about this kiss from the others that they had shared together. Kairi figured it was probably because she now actually knew she was Sora's girlfriend. She had kind of just assumed it before without a worry, but now she actually knew.

'_Tell him you love him,'_ Naminé suggested.

Kairi thought about this for a moment before disagreeing with her. Yes, she was sure that she loved Sora, but this was too early in a relationship to say the words. Besides, she didn't want to hear those words all the time. The fewer times they were said, as long as they were always felt, the more special they were.

It was like they were holding a competition to see who would be the first to break away for air, and when Kairi felt a burning pain in her lungs, she knew she lost. She moved away from him only slightly, breathing deeply as she stared at him.

"Where you to get that kind of lung capacity?"

Sora broke into laughter and said, "You learn from having to run and fight thousands of Heartless on your own."

Kairi frowned a bit and said, "Will you keep teaching me to fight? You said I was doing good, but I don't think it's good enough."

"Well, you do have a long way to go, but I feel less nervous about getting separated from you now, for a little while," he said as he stood up and held his hand out to her. It was a blunt lie, and they both knew it. He would never be any less nervous about being separated from her, but he was trying to encourage her and that's what mattered. He remembered the small Heartless around them, and shuddered a bit. They didn't have a lot of training time left, that he was sure of. "Wanna spar now?"

Kairi took his hand and purposely let herself trip so that she would fall into his arms. She grinned broadly at him and said, "Not now. There's something else I want to do first."

"What's that?"

With a quick movement and a loud splash, Sora found himself lying in the shallow water, staring up at a laughing Kairi. He stared at her, stunned for a moment, before jumping up and grabbing her. She let out a scream as Sora threw her over his shoulder and walked out into the deeper, colder water.

"Sora! No! Take me back to the shore!" Kairi said, although it was hard for her to be demanding when she kept laughing.

"Nope," he said happily as he moved her so that he was holding her in his arms so he could see her face. With a wicked grin, Sora twisted around and let himself fall backwards into the water.

A moment later, both of them broke the surface of water, laughing and still holding on to one another.

Kairi kissed him quickly before moving back and saying, "Now look what you did, we'll have to wait to go somewhere because you got your pants wet."

Sora winked and said, "I can loose 'em for you."

Kairi blushed madly but laughed at the same time. She smacked his shoulder and said, "Stop being such a perv Sora. I never knew you were so dirty minded."

"Not my fault you decided to come prancing over dressed in practically nothing."

Kairi punched him lightly before resting her arms over his shoulders and said, "I'm hungry."

Sora smiled warmly at her before picking her up again and saying, "Well, lets get back to the other island so I can get some new clothes, and then I'll take you out to eat."

Kairi practically leapt out of his arms from happiness as she grabbed her clothes and headed to the secret place to get changed. When it came to getting free food, she was always happy. Sora couldn't understand how such a tiny girl could eat so much. Then again, he was very thin and he ate a lot too. Riku despised them both for it, since he actually had to watch what he ate and he needed to exercise quite a bit, or he'd get a little pudgy.

Sora shook those thoughts out of his head. He was really going on his first date with Kairi, and even though he knew she felt as strongly for him as he did for her, he still didn't want to mess this up.

And god-forbid one of their friends showed up and ruined it. Sora would make their life miserable if that was what it came to.

And if it was Heartless, even a small one, he was going to trash _everything_.

**VVVVV**

Kairi giggled as Sora stumbled down the stairs from his bedroom, new clothes thrown on in place of his wet black shorts. He shot her a wide grin and hugged her close to him while closing his eyes.

"I'm still hungry," Kairi muttered while leaning up and giving him a quick kiss.

Sora grinned through their kiss and as they parted he said, "Now Kairi, we can't do that here, my mom's home."

Kairi punched his arm (again) before saying, "Funny Sor."

Sora's smile broadened as he looped his arm over her shoulder and started to lead her through the door.

Or at least he tried to.

"Sora? Where are you going?"

Sora rolled his eyes as he and Kairi turned around. He stared at his mother as she appeared in the hall behind them and said, "Out?"

"Out where?"

"I don't know," he answered. "Just out."

"Is Riku going?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Does it matter?" Sora snapped at her. "I don't need a babysitter!"

"Sora!" Ayame Hikari snapped back at him. "Don't you dare speak to me that way! You're staying home."

"No, I'm not," he replied. "I promised Kairi I'd take her out and I'm taking her out. Okay? You usually let me go with her."

There was a heavy silence in the room before Kairi whispered, "It's okay Sora, I can just—"

"No, it's not okay," Sora said to her in a calm voice, making sure not to take his frustration out on her before looking at his mother again. "You're always gushing on about how cute we are together and everything, and you always tell me to walk Kairi home so nothing happens, but now that I'm actually going to take her out somewhere, you want me to just stay home?"

The tension in the air was thick as identical eyes stared each other down. Kairi felt like she was going to be smothered as she looked from mother to son and back again. No one in the room made a sound or any sort of movement.

"Come on," Sora broke the imposing silence. He led her out the door without saying another word to his mother.

**VVVVV**

Sora felt terrible. He felt like he had ruined the rest of what was supposed to be an exciting afternoon for him and Kairi. He let out a sigh, subconsciously bringing the girl a little closer to him.

"Hey," Kairi said as she moved in front of him to stop him, "cheer up."

"I'm an ass."

"Maybe," she grinned. "So you can do one of two things: turn around and apologize to your mother, or we still go out and you apologize to your mother when we come back." She knew it was greedy, but she desperately hoped that he'd do the second. There was no doubt that if he went home again he wouldn't be coming back out.

As if reading her mind, he pressed his lips to the side of her head then said, "I'll talk to her later. I promised you food, and I'm pretty sure that I could hear your stomach from Riku's house if I tried. If you punch me again I'm not paying for your food."

Kairi pouted and lowered her hand. She blinked at him cutely and said, "That wouldn't be much of a date, now would it?" She clutched onto his arm tightly as they started walking again, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Wanna go see a movie afterwards?" Sora asked suddenly.

"Stereotypical first date much?" Kairi teased.

"I could always just decide to go back to my house."

"Don't you dare!"

"You can come with me, if you know what I mean." She punched him in the arm again, but he was expecting it and knew he deserved it.

"Seriously, you're a huge perv today."

Sora grinned broadly at her and said, "What do you feel like eating?"

She seemed to go into deep thought about this important question, and Sora started dreading the answer. She'd probably choose to go to that disgusting sushi bar that she liked so much.

"I want a burger."

Okay, maybe not.

"Really now? Miss. Health Queen wants greasy food?" he teased. They could both eat a lot, but where he enjoyed burgers, fries and other greasy delights like that, she always enjoyed food that was healthier.

Kairi pouted and said, "Yes."

Sora laughed as he took his arm out of her grasp and wrapped it around her shoulder again, "Whatever you want babe." He caught her raised eyebrow and said, "What? Don't like that nickname? How 'bout sweetheart? Honey? Darling? Love? Shnookie? Sw—"

Kairi started laughing and said, "I prefer Iri coming from you, but if you want to use babe or baby from time to time I don't care." She saw his grin and added, "But I get to call you shnookie."

"Wait, what?"

"Come on shnookie-bear, I'm hungry."

"Kairi!" Sora whined as they kept walking down the road. He prayed that she was only kidding and would let the stupid pet name go. If not, his life might as well be over. Screw Heartless, embarrassment would kill him first.

**VVVVV**

"Hey, no falling asleep yet."

Kairi took her head off of his shoulder and said, "It's not my fault that that movie was a longer one."

Sora shook his head as he helped her up the steps in front of her house. She moved away from his side to hug him and said, "I had fun. I really did."

"Really? I thought that, after you started falling asleep in an action movie, that you were kind of bored."

"No, you just make a really good pillow."

Sora laughed at her before a flash in one of the windows of her house caught his eye. "I think we have an audience."

"What kind of audience?" she questioned without turning to see herself.

"The motherly type."

"Oh, is that all?" Kairi said. "Well, I bet I know what she's waiting for, so we better do it while dad's not there."

Sora shot her a quick grin before leaning down and giving her a soft kiss. He backed up after a few seconds and said, "I'll see you tomorrow, kay?"

Kairi nodded and kissed him on the cheek before saying, "Count on it…shnookie."

Sora groaned and Kairi laughed as he turned and walked down the front steps. He grinned warmly when he was by the fence around her house, before waving and continuing down the road.

Kairi giggled happily as she walked into her house.

"So," her adoptive mother said with a small grin. "What was that I just saw?"

"Hmmm?" Kairi was off in her own little world. She shot her mother an airy smile before saying, "Nothing mom." With that she walked passed the woman and up the stairs. Nothing could ruin her good mood right now.

Nothing.

**VVVVV**

_Note:_ Next chapter is where the more adventure-type things start. This fic is labeled as romance first though, so no one's allowed to complain about lack of adventure in the first part.

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	9. Falling

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Eight – Falling_

A loud crash and a scream jerked Kairi violently out of her enjoyable dreams. She was confused, looking around and not comprehending what was going on. Her room looked perfectly normal, so why would there be a scream? After a moment, she realized just how stupid that question was. Just because her room was fine, didn't mean everywhere else was fine.

She got out of her bed and blindly made her way towards where she knew her window was. She pushed the bright yellow curtains out of the way and looked beyond the pane of glass. The only problem was that she couldn't see a thing. There wasn't a single light on outside, and a cloudy sky blocked the moonlight.

Kairi quickly made her way around her room in the dark, throwing on her clothes as she did. She made sure to attach her small pack to the side of her belt that had some medical items in it, just in case. It wasn't a lot, because she didn't have super pockets like Sora did. She then attached the Oathkeeper keychain that Sora had given back to her to her belt before searching her pitch-black room for a flashlight.

She cautiously pushed open her bedroom door, using the flashlight to guide her way. She headed towards her parents' room, and forced the door open. The window had been shattered, and there was no one in there.

"Mom?" she called out as she started moving throughout the eerily silent house. "Dad? Where are you?"

She managed to get down the stairs without tripping. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness a little better, and she was able to make out the faint shapes and outlines of the furniture in her house. There were no movements or signs of life at all. She was completely alone.

Panic flashed through her as she quickly rushed to the door. Without any sort of caution, she wrenched the door opened, and screamed with surprise. Something had tackled her to the ground, forcing the air out of her lungs violently and causing her to drop the flashlight. She tried to move, but whatever had tackled her was sitting on her, keeping her on the floor. She reached blindly behind her, and finally, she found her flashlight. Turning it on again, she shined it on her attacker, and screamed.

The Neoshadow that was on top of her didn't appreciate the flashlight, nor did it seem to like her scream. It swiped its hand at her, knocking the flashlight out of her hand and slashing her arm at the same time.

She winced in pain as she tried to struggle. The Neoshadow wasn't letting her move though as it raised its hand up over her heart, shuddering in anticipation of getting such a pure heart.

"Get off of her!" a shrill voice shrieked. The Heartless had been prepared for a lot, but it was not prepared for a frying pan to the side of the head.

Kairi moved quickly, getting to her feet again. Her mother grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the house and around the side of it. She could see the outlines of destruction around them, and she could easily make out the glowing yellow eyes of the mass amount of Heartless that were there.

"Run," her mother said. "Hurry. Your father is holding them off, go."

Before Kairi could reply, she was yanked backwards. She let out a quick, sharp scream as she slammed into the palm tree behind her roughly. She blinked in a dazed way, taking in the image of her mother screaming her name and her father running around the side of the house before everything went dark.

**VVVVV**

A familiar cold feeling passed over Riku, and before he even opened his eyes, he was fully alert to what was going on around him. There was no one in his room that shouldn't have been there, and he had a feeling that only his father was in their house. Outside the walls though, that was a different story. There was something dark lurking in massive quantities. Riku hadn't felt something like this since he had last been in the darkness.

He was quick in grabbing his clothes and throwing them on. Looking around towards his window, he saw that all of the power had been cut off, and without moonlight, Destiny Islands was almost totally encased in darkness. It was the perfect hunting grounds for hungry Heartless.

Even after months of not being in the darkness, he was still able to see everything fairly clearly. He knew something was wrong outside, and that the darkness was on the prowl.

"Riku," a stern voice said suddenly, and it almost startled him. Of all the people out there, only his father, a highly trained military man, could ever sneak up on him. "What are you doing?"

"There's something outside," Riku said simply, eyeing the front door. "Something dark, something evil." There was a pause, as he turned around and faced his father. "You need to stay here."

"You're under the impression that I'm just going to let my only son wander out in the middle of a blackout when he says that there's something evil outside?"

"You have to," Riku replied. There was a quick flash of light and his Keyblade materialized in his hand. Never once had he shown his father the weapon, there had been no reason to.

He didn't see it, but a sudden recognition passed over his father's face. It was almost like a blindfold had been pulled off of the older man. There was a look of confusion and fear that quickly turned into acceptance. He knew what that weapon was in the boy's hand. It had been a long time since he had last seen one though.

"Stay here and hide," Riku said to his father, not turning to look at him. "These things can be temporarily destroyed with powerful weapons that aren't Keyblades."

"Be careful." Riku had been expecting some sort of long lecture of some sorts. His father was a stern man, even more so since his mother had left them when he was younger. His father normally drilled him on everything he did. The only information he had never got out of him was what had happened in the year and a half he had been gone.

"That's it?" Riku asked with confusion.

"There hasn't been a Keimei, by blood or marriage, who hasn't been a fighter. That includes your mother. I doubt I'd be any more successful keeping you here than I was with her."

Riku nodded his head and said, "Stay away from the windows and doors." With that, he pushed the front door open and ran into the doors after slamming it shut.

**VVVVV**

"Sora!"

His mother's scream woke Sora up from his slumber. He brought his head off of the desk he had fallen asleep at while doing some homework like his mother insisted. She had said that if he did all of his homework, she'd forgive him for their little spat earlier. More than anything, Sora didn't want to be fighting with his mother whom he loved so much, so he agreed, even though it was a Saturday night.

He shook his head and turned around as she burst into his room with a frightened look on her face. "Mom, what's wrong?" He squinted as she shone the flashlight in his eyes, slowly coming to the realization that it was the only source of light that he could see.

"Darkness," she answered while looking out the window.

Sora followed her gaze and jumped up, rushing over to his window. He could see hundreds of moving shadows creeping around the island, attacking the innocent people around them.

"Sora!" his mother shrieked as he pushed the window open and jumped down to the ground. Automatically, several of the Heartless jumped at him, but they met their end at his Keyblade quickly enough.

Ayame leaned out the window and watched her son fight, able to see him due to the fire that he had accidentally set to the nearby shrubs. Her eyebrows scrunched up with confusion as, for a moment, Sora had spiky blond hair instead. She shook her head before turning on her heel and rushing down the stairs.

Sora winced as he felt one of the Heartless slash at his legs, causing him to hiss with pain. He continued slashing at the creatures, but there were far too many of them.

He stumbled to the ground and looked up as one of the Heartless attempted to jump on him, but he was dragged backwards. His mother fell onto her back after dragging him across the ground and out of the grip of the Heartless. She got up and forced Sora up as well, forcing him to look her in the eyes.

"Run."

"But—"

"No! You listen to me and run. Find Kairi and Riku and go!"

Tears welded up in Sora's eyes unwillingly as she pushed him away and he said, "Mom."

"Go!"

Sora turned and ran, trying desperately not to look back at his mother.

Ayame winced a bit as the creatures started advancing toward her and, suddenly, everything came back to her. She now knew why she was always calling people Ventus, why she got an odd feeling whenever she went into her basement, and why she saw, for a moment, that Sora had blond hair instead of brown when he was fighting. She looked at the Heartless advancing on her and saying, "You bastards. Things like you are the reason I lost everything!"

The Heartless all lunged at her, and the last thought on her mind was her prayers for her son's survival.

**VVVVV**

Kairi was jerked out of her unconsciousness by a white-hot pain that started in her leg and went all the way up her side. She let out a scream from pain and tried to get up, but she couldn't move, again.

Looking around wildly, she saw a Heartless staring at her, it's claws digging into her leg painfully. It moved closer towards her face, clawing at her skin as he moved.

Kairi flexed her fist as the creature moved it's bloody claws towards her chest, and in a flash of light her Keyblade, Destiny Place, appeared in her hand. She brought it around quickly, slicing through the Heartless.

She groaned as she pushed herself off of the ground. She managed to get into a sitting position, and let out a whimper of pain as she held her head in her hands. Her arm was throbbing, her head ached from its collision to the tree, and now her leg was in agony.

She heard more movement and her head snapped up. Several more Heartless had appeared, surrounding her, all hungry to try and claim her heart for themselves.

Kairi held up her Keyblade, but it didn't seem to faze any of them as they approached her. She tried to stand up, but her leg gave out on her. She was smart enough to realize that she was screwed.

Then a horrible realization came to her, where were her parents?

The Heartless jumped at her, but they never made their target. They were all destroyed in a quick movement, and the rest that remained backed away as Sora snarled at them, "Get away from her!" Heartless didn't comprehend what Sora was demanding though. All they knew was that these two people in front of them had strong hearts, and they wanted them.

Knowing that they weren't going to leave, Sora quickly used his Keyblade and disposed of them before turning to Kairi.

"Oh god," he said when he saw the blood coming from her leg. The wound was bad.

"Sora?" Kairi muttered faintly as she looked up at him. "Where are my parents? They were here before I was knocked out."

Sora didn't have to look around to know that they weren't there, and if they weren't there, odds were extremely high that they had lost their hearts. They would have never left an unconscious Kairi alone.

Instead of answering her, he said, "We have to go."

"No!" she shouted as she tried to stand up again, only to fail. "No! Where are my parents? Where are they?"

"They're gone!" Sora yelled after a minute, and she stopped shouting instantly. "They're gone, Kairi! Probably Heartless roaming around here somewhere. We have to move, now!"

Tears welded up in her eyes, and while he felt bad for yelling, he knew it was necessary when she got hysterical. He was sure that the blood loss wasn't helping her any.

Sora's Keyblade vanished as he reached down and picked her up. She let out a sob and still verbally protested moving, but it didn't matter what she did.

Sora re-summoned his Keyblade, quickly used curaga on her, and then he muttered something else. There was a quick glow and she was instantly asleep in his arms. "I'm sorry," he whispered, "but I can't have you fighting with me right now." He was thankful that Roxas had discovered new, different spells in some old books. Sleepaga came in very handy when he needed it.

**VVVVV**

Destiny Islands was in pure chaos. Riku didn't know where to go or who to save. There were more Heartless here than there were when he opened the door on the play island. To make things worse, he had yet to see either one of his friends, even though he had gone into Sora's house earlier. Neither the boy nor his mother had been there.

"Riku!"

He whipped around and saw Sora rushing towards him, dodging out of the way of any Heartless that jumped at him. He had no choice but to dodge due to the unconscious Kairi in his arms.

"What happened to her?" Riku asked when he saw the blood that had stained her leg.

"One of the Heartless got her good," Sora said as he came to a stop, cradling the unconscious girl closer. "Not her heart," he added, when he saw Riku's horrified expression. "She was in pain and I healed her, but she was starting to get hysterical about her parents so I put her to sleep."

Riku gave him an odd look, not quite sure how his friend had put her to sleep, but he wasn't going to ask. He motioned for Sora to move behind him, and though Sora was usually fierce about how he could protect himself, he didn't have any spare arms at the moment, and he hadn't yet mastered using his Keyblade telepathically outside of his Final Form. He was trying, but if he tried that now he would just exhaust himself to unconsciousness.

Riku slashed at the Heartless that were approaching them and motioned for his friend to run. They both took off towards the beach, since it was the only clear path they could find. Both were aware that they were just running to a dead end, but there was nowhere else they could go. Sora could see the Heartless that he had dealt with in Atlantica in the water, and he knew they needed to get off the world somehow.

"We are so screwed," Riku said with a grunt as he fought off the Heartless that came near them.

Sora turned back to talk to him and ended up underestimating his ability to run in one direction while carrying a teenage girl and look in the opposite direction at the same time. He stumbled over his own feet, and toppled ungracefully onto the sand. He was thankful that Kairi was unconscious, because he was sure that all of his weight falling onto her wouldn't have been pleasant on her part. 

"Are you okay?" Riku called out as he swiped at a few of the Heartless before running to his friends.

Sora got up and looked at Kairi to make sure she was breathing. As he saw her chest move, he nodded to himself and picked her up again. "Yeah."

"Sora! Riku!"

They both looked over and saw Selphie, Wakka and Tidus running towards them. Sora couldn't say that he was all that surprised that, of all the people towards the inland of the island to escape the Heartless, it had been them. They had several younger children with them as well, having stumbled upon them while escaping.

"What's going on?" Tidus asked, his eyes widening with panic.

"Not important!" Selphie snapped, sounding slightly more hysterical than normal. "What do we do? We need to get away!"

Riku and Sora exchanged a glance. Neither one of them had a clue how they were going to get off the island. If they had had a few weeks notice, they could have asked Mickey to send Gummi Ships, but Heartless didn't like to schedule their rampages that far ahead of time.

"I can get us out of here, but I'm not sure where we'll end up."

Everyone jumped and looked at Sora oddly. The voice sounded like it came from him, but he hadn't actually moved his mouth. Sora was a terrible ventriloquist (he had tried), so only Riku had any idea what was going on.

A second later, Roxas materialized out of Sora's body. The small children screamed a bit, and Selphie, Wakka and Tidus seemed sufficiently stunned beyond words. Roxas, for his part, ignored all of them and turned to Sora. "I can make a dark portal, but I haven't practiced in a long time. You need to let me access your magic, I'm useless without it."

Sora nodded and said, "Do it."

"What about the rest of the island?" Riku asked.

Sora looked around reluctantly, tightening his hold on Kairi once again. He looked back at his friend sadly and said, "There's nothing we can do no—" Before he could finish his sentence, there was a loud explosion. Everyone fell to the ground, and Sora winced as he hit his head, again.

Blinking his eyes rapidly, he looked over at Roxas. The blond was a spirit at most, so the explosion didn't bother him, but he was casting Sora a worried look, haven felt the pain in his head.

"Do it now!" Sora yelled at him. Roxas nodded and held his transparent hand up. A second later, a swirling vortex of black, grey and purple appeared in front of the group.

"We have to get in and out fast. If this is happening in the light, I can only imagine what will be in the darkness."

Everyone was on his or her feet again and no one question Roxas as he led the way in. Riku cast Sora a worried look as he stumbled bit while walking and said, "Want me to take her?"

Sora shook his head stubbornly and said, "I'm fine. Nothing like getting your head bashed in for the third time."

Riku was the last to enter the portal, staying behind his friends just in case. Sora caught on to this, and even though he appreciated his friend's worry, his male pride didn't want any help. He moved up by Roxas, who was looking around with confusion.

"What's wrong?"

"Normally it's just a straight corridor with one in and out," Roxas said nervously as his eyes jutted around quickly. "There are so many entrances." There were dozens of brightly lit portals glowing around them.

"Can you just—" Sora stopped as Roxas suddenly let out a groan and slumped to the ground. He held his hands to his head for a moment before fading out, but the look of pain that had been on his face had been seen by all. "Roxas!"

The Nobody didn't answer Sora, and he had a strong feeling of déjà vu as he started to panic. The last time he had lost contact with his Nobody, he had been lost in the dark and was tortured by that sadistic girl. He didn't want to have to deal with her again.

"Sora! Breathe!" he heard Riku call out to him, but he didn't register what the words meant. His cerulean eyes locked onto Riku's bright green ones for a moment with little comprehension in them.

Riku shot forward as he saw Sora stumble backwards, his eyes closing as he started falling towards one of the brightly lit portals. Riku tried to grab his friend's arm, but he missed by literally an inch. That was something he would never ever let go of later on.

Sora fell back through the portal with Kairi in his arms and it closed directly behind them. Riku felt his heart hammer wildly against his chest as he watched his two friends disappear, and automatically fear and guilt seemed to explode inside of him.

"Riku!" Wakka yelled at him, snapping him out of his stunned state. He looked around and saw several white creatures appearing, contrasting against the black world they were in.

He took a deep breath and said, "Hurry, go through there!" He acted like he knew what he was doing, but he had just pointed at a random spot. Still, he couldn't save his friends, so he was determined to save someone. He looked over his shoulder at where Sora and Kairi had been for just a moment before following everyone else through the portal.

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	10. Far Into The Forest

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Nine – Far Into the Forest_

Kairi groaned and slowly opened her eyes. The side of her face resting against rough, yellowing grass, no doubt to leave a few crease marks on her smooth skin. She moved her head slightly, and found herself staring up at the bare, twisted trees above her with confusion. The last thing she remembered was Sora defending her from the Heartless on Destiny Islands, and these trees certainly weren't native to their tropical world.

She jerked up quickly with a gasp as the memories rushed back. A sharp pain flashed through her leg and she let out a whimper before looking around at it. Her body was lying perpendicular over Sora, her back resting on his stomach. She looked at her leg, noticing that it was still bleeding. She vaguely remembered Sora curing her before she fell unconscious, so she assumed that it had opened up again.

She let out a grunt of pain as she managed to swing her leg off of Sora and rolled beside him. She tried to push herself up, but the shock in her system was wearing off and burning pain shot through her arm. She let out a cry and her body fell. Looking at her arm, she saw that it was swollen and bruised, and she knew that from the pain that there was a good chance that she had broken it. She had no clue what to do. She didn't know where they were, she was in pain, and Sora hadn't made any sort of sound, despite her cries of agony.

That was when it occurred to her that something was wrong. Sora always seemed to know when she was hurt or needed help, and she supposed it was because of the connection between their hearts. She always shrugged off the odd feelings she would get every once and a while that seemed to be completely at random, but she was starting to think that she was feeling what he felt at times.

Kairi looked up at him and managed to move closer to his unmoving form. She pushed herself up, grinding her teeth. She didn't call out though, because if Sora could take all the pain he did to keep her safe, she could take some to see if he was alright.

"Sora?" she whispered, but he didn't move. "Sora?" Nothing.

Panic started to seep into her, and she was about to reach forward in an attempt to jerk him or to try and wake him up, but she stopped. When he had been at the hospital, the doctor had reprimanded all of them for moving him so much and for not calling paramedics. Kairi remembered being told that it could have done more harm than good.

She took in a few deep breaths to calm herself down and moved so that she was leaning close to him. She could feel his breath hitting her face, and she let out a sigh of relief. He was breathing, and it sounded pretty normal to her. That was good. She touched his skin and it wasn't extremely hot or cold, another good thing. He just appeared to be unconscious.

Kairi moved again so that she wasn't irritating her leg or her arm while keeping an eye on him. She couldn't move, for fear of making her wound open more or making her broken arm any worse. Instead, she used her good arm and gently brushed her hand over Sora's face despite the pain.

A few moments later, he let out a moan and shifted. His eyes opened and he blinked up at the sky with the same dazed expression that she had on her face when she woke up. He tilted his head slightly, his eyes meeting hers with confusion.

There was a silent pause, and Kairi watched as his eyes got wider and he shot up suddenly. He let out a groan and held his head as a sharp pain flashed through it. Taking in a few deep breaths, he turned to Kairi to say something, but whatever it was seemed to have left his mind. He stared at her bleeding leg and her swollen arm and said, "Oh god."

Forgetting all about what he wanted to ask her, he quickly took his short-sleeved jacket off. He glanced around for a moment before shaking his head and summoning his Keyblade. He pointed it at his vest and said, "Wateraga."

Kairi watched with fascination as water poured out of the Keyblade, soaking the article of clothing. She winced as he gently started dabbing at her leg to wash it off.

"It's a lower level spell I learned," Sora explained to her. "Well, not lower level, but it takes a lot less energy than Curaga does, and I don't think I have the energy for that right now."

"Where'd you learn it?" Kairi asked, trying to distract herself from the pain in her leg.

"Roxas," he answered. "He found a book in my basement. I have no clue why it was there, but it looked old. Anyway, it had a lot of spells in it beyond what I knew, so I started practicing those. Magic was never my strongest suit." He looked over her wound and frowned, "I wish I had some sort of potion or Polysporin or something, but I don't. I guess that will have to do for now."

He rinsed off his jacket again and flipped it around so that the side he had cleaned her leg with was on the outside. Kairi flushed violently as he lifted up her leg to wrap the clothing around it. She had no doubt that, if he wanted to, he could have just glanced up and would have gotten a great view up her skirt. Sora didn't though. He respected her enough not to take advantage of the situation, and besides, he wasn't even thinking about that at the moment.

Frowning a bit, he realized that the short sleeves of the jacket posed a problem. He reached around and unclipped one of his belts and wrapping that outside the makeshift bandage. He made it tight to keep the pressure on it, but not enough to cause her any more pain.

"Now, what do we do about your arm?" he wondered aloud. He wasn't about to let her go anywhere with a broken arm that wasn't at least in a sling, but he didn't know what he could use.

Kairi watched him think and said, "Don't worry about it. We should figure out where we are."

The look Sora gave her was beyond scandalized. He shook his head violently and said, "No. I'm not letting you wander around like that."

She was about to protest again when he quickly yanked his shirt off and she blushed violently again. He didn't take any notice as he used his long t-shirt and another belt to make a sort-of sling. It wasn't going to help much, but it was better than nothing.

Sora got to his feet, and his world suddenly started spinning. He stumbled a bit, holding onto the tree beside them.

"Sora?" Kairi said with worry as she managed to push herself to her feet while holding onto the same tree he was. "What happened?"

"The island—"

"No, to you. That's the only thing I can take care of right now."

He hesitated and said, "There was an explosion when I was carrying you and I fell. Hit my head again."

Her eyes softened as she said, "Something really wants to test how thick your head is, doesn't it? That's been what, three times?"

Sora laughed at her and said, "I'll be fine once this passes. We need to figure out where we are. I've never seen this place in my life."

Kairi nodded and took a step towards him. She wrapped her arm around him, and catching his curious glance, she said, "We can support each other. It'll get us out of here a lot faster." Her cheeks flushed lightly as she realized how close she was to his bare torso, but she scolded herself for thinking like that at such an inappropriate time.

"You do know you're not supposed to wander around in the woods if you don't know where you are, right?"

"Do the same ideas apply when you're lost in an entirely different world?"

Sora scrunched his face up and said, "We'll need to write a survival guide."

Kairi nodded, and Sora managed to straighten himself up more. He had a headache still, but everything wasn't swimming in front of him anymore.

They started walking at a very slow pace, not really sure where they were going. The sound of their footsteps on the grass, crushing leaves and twigs as they went, and the wind whistling through the trees was the only sound for a while. For his part, Sora was glad that Kairi was so close to him, because without his shirt it was a little chilly.

"Sora, what happened to the islands?"

"Best bet?" Sora said with a frown. "Gone. We had to get out. There were some others, but I don't remember what happened. Roxas opened up a dark corridor for us, but when we went in, instead of one door out, there was a lot. Then he vanished and he looked like he was in pain and then…everything goes black."

"My parents?"

Sora looked at the ground and said, "When I found you, you were almost hysterical asking for them. They weren't there when I showed up, Iri."

She took in a deep, shaky breath. She knew exactly what that meant. They were gone.

They continued walking in silence until an odd thought crossed her mind, and was pressed forward by Naminé. She stopped walking and asked, "Have you spoken to Roxas since we got here?"

"What? No," Sora said, a confused looking passing over his features. "I, I don't understand…"

They had stopped walking, and a look of concentration passed over Sora's face as he searched himself for Roxas. Kairi could feel a thrill of fear that came from Naminé, and she knew that whatever had happened to Sora's Nobody hadn't effected hers.

He shook his head, but wished his hadn't. He let out a groan and said, "I can't find him anywhere. It's just like, he's gone."

**VVVVV**

Roxas wasn't really used to the darkness anymore. Looking back on his past with the Organization, he had never really been able to handle pure darkness like the others had. He hadn't understood why at the time, but in retrospect, he supposed that it had scared him a bit. Knowing where he came from, he wasn't all that surprised. Sora had very little darkness inside of him. There was some there, but at times Roxas wondered how Sora's heart managed to stand so strong and stable when the light inside of him overpowered the dark so much. Sora wasn't an entity of twilight, he wasn't meant to stay in the darkness. His heart was only just shy of the light that Kairi's had. If Roxas told this to other people though, they would argue and point out that his Anti-form was one of the most vicious Heartless they had ever met, and while it was true that Anti-form was vicious, everyone was wrong in assuming that it was a Heartless. It was an odd feeling when Anti-form managed to take over, because it felt almost like something else was controlling them, something dark that was beyond Sora's pitiful amount of darkness.

It was all terribly confusing to think about. He looked up, not seeing anything darkness but he wasn't all that surprised. Ever since he had vanished back into Sora earlier, that's what he had been stuck in.

For his part, he had tried calling out to his Other in hopes of getting some kind of communication, but he never received any reply. He had tried summoning the Keyblade as well with no results.

He wasn't moving anywhere, but he was on high alert. Roxas wasn't stupid, he knew that he was in the exact same situation Sora had been in when he was unconscious. Sora hadn't told Kairi or Riku what had happened inside of his heart, but he couldn't hide that from him. Roxas had seen what that girl had done to Sora, and he knew that the pain Sora had felt had been horrible. Besides, he was a little more used to the darkness than Sora was, so it didn't feel quite as crushing to him as it did to his Other.

Suddenly, he heard footsteps. Looking around wildly, he wasn't quite sure where the sound was coming. It seemed to echo everywhere. He took a step back, and ended up tripping over something.

He pushed himself up, wondering bitterly what could have tripped him when the ground was nothing but flat darkness, but he felt himself tense when he saw a rise of glass before him. This was exactly like Sora had described.

He got off of the ground quickly and took a few steps away from the shining mound. He wasn't expecting to be attacked from behind though. Light seemed to wrap around his legs and his body, snapping his arms to his side. As it stopped glowing, the light turned into solid crystals. He let out a sigh of annoyance and looked around and called out, "Come on bitch, I know you're here."

"So I assume Sora told you about me then?"

He managed to look over his shoulder as he saw a girl appear. She walked up to him, and smirked a bit, standing so she was face to face with him. There was science for a moment before she pouted and said, "You don't remember me Roxie?"

He blinked with surprised and asked, "Why would I recognize you? Aside from the memories of you torturing Sora."

She sighed a bit and said, "I'm insulted Roxas. I thought for sure you'd recognize one of your own. Oh well, that memory bitch did a pretty good job on you."

"Don't you dare call her that," he snarled.

She actually seemed taken back by his outright anger. She raised a violet eyebrow and said, "Temper, temper. So I guess it's true, a Nobody that has emotions."

"Who are you?"

"Wouldn't you like to know," she said with a smirk. "So, mind telling me what you remember about your time with the Organization?"

"What?" he asked genuinely surprised. He had been expecting a lot of things, but not this.

"Anything you remember will work," she persisted. There was a pause before she said, "Guess not. I was hoping that you would just tell me what I wanted to know, but it looks like you're in the dark too." She leaned on him like he was a wall or a pole and seemed to think for a moment.

Roxas was trying to break out of his crystal prison, but it was no use. If this stuff was similar to diamonds, then the only thing that could break it was another diamond, like the staff she had that Sora had told him about.

"How about your journal?" she asked suddenly. "I know you kept one."

"I don't know where that is," he snapped at her. "I lost it when Riku and DiZ took me."

She once again leaned against him, thinking as her staff appeared in her hand. She hummed for a moment before moving swiftly. Her staff shattered the crystals touching his arm, and he felt like his skin was being ripped off with the falling shards.

"Are you sure you don't remember?" she asked slowly. He remind firm despite the pain in his arm, and she let out a sigh and raised it up again, but froze as she felt something poke into her back. "Someone had better just be happy to see me."

"Get away from him," Sora snarled at her as he nudged her with the Keyblade. She let out a sigh before swinging the staff around, only to be intercepted by a Keyblade decorated with bright golds, pinks and blues.

Kairi glared at the girl in front of her heatedly, as if daring her to move.

Pushing her violet hair out of her eyes she said, "Well, looks like I'm outnumbered here. Unfortunately, this is your mind cutie." She nodded towards Sora, and Kairi's glare became stronger. "I'll be going now."

She vanished, as did all of the crystals. Roxas stumbled forward, but Sora and Kairi managed to catch him.

The blond let out a sigh of relief as the darkness started to vanish, he had never been happier to see the light before.

**VVVVV**

Sora's eyes slid open slowly, and he found himself staring into the worried faces of the two young women above him. Some people might have found it startling to wake up to see a transparent figure hovering over them, but he was used to it.

"Did it work?" Naminé asked with worry.

"Yeah," Sora replied after a moment of searching. He could feel Roxas' presence again, and as exhausted as it was, at least it was there.

Naminé smiled at him before looking over at Kairi, who was lying beside Sora still asleep. Sora glanced over at her and frowned a bit while taking her hand into his and glancing back at Naminé. "Is she alright?"

"Yeah," the transparent figure said. "She's just tired. It takes a lot to push a soul into someone else's body when they're not used to it. You two are stronger together though than if you and I had gone, so it made sense. Thank you for helping with the power they needed Snow White."

The second young woman that had been bending over Sora smiled warmly at the boy and the phantom. She had been walking in the woods with several of the dwarves that she had once shared a house with when she found Sora and Kairi. She actually lived up in the castle with Prince Lukas, but she was staying with her small friends for a while.

Snow White had led them back to the cottage and went to work healing their wounds with the light magic she had learned to use. She admitted that sometimes she feared Maleficent, or even the Wicked Queen of her world would return one day. While she wasn't any sort of fighter, she wanted to help people in some way, and her pure heart made it easy for her to learn healing magic.

Sora turned to ask Naminé something, but she had vanished already. Kairi let out a groan and her eyes opened. She blinked before focusing on Sora and smiling warmly at him. "Did it work?"

He nodded and said, "Yup, Roxas is back being his normal, annoying self." He laughed as he heard his Nobody protest. "Are you alright?"

She nodded and tested out her once broken arm. Snow White had done an amazing job healing it, but Kairi wasn't going to even try to pretend that she that she was happy that Sora had put his shirt back on.

"So, everything's alright now?" Snow White asked softly, her brown eyes moving from one of them to the other as she twisted her hands nervously.

Sora frowned at her behavior and asked, "Are you alright?"

"I—I'm fine," she said, "but there are many others that are hurt badly. Like my friends who own this house."

"The seven dwarves you mentioned?" Kairi asked curiously.

"Yes," Snow White said with a nod. "The only ones who are fully healthy now are Dopey, Doc and Grumpy. Not even my healing abilities could help the rest to get better right away."

Sora frowned a bit as he got out of the bed he and Kairi had been laying on. He held out his hand to help the redhead up before looking at Snow White and asked, "What happened to them?"

"Oh, perhaps we should discuss this in the kitchen?" Snow White said. "You two must be famished and I don't want to be a bad hostess. I can tell you all about it then. I hope you don't mind blueberry pie? I'm not partial to apples anymore."

"What's a blueberry?" Kairi asked Sora. He had been to other worlds, he should know.

Despite her belief, Sora just shrugged and said, "Not a clue. I've never come across them before, and I've had some really weird food. Come on, we need to find out what's happening. It's probably related to what happened to our island."

Kairi nodded and they followed Snow White down the stairs and into the kitchen. None of the dwarves were home, so it was just the three of them for now. Snow White moved around the kitchen, working quickly and soon the two of them had plates of pie in front of them.

Kairi had poked at the odd, purplish substance in the crust for a moment, but Sora was quick in trying it. He would try anything if he had the option. Besides, he could stomach the rather interesting cuisine in Agrabah (something about Yakhnehs, which had tasted a lot better than it sounded), so he could handle a pie.

"It's good," Sora said to her, but she made a face. He sighed and looked at Snow White, who had a genuine smile on her face.

There was a noise outside, and the three looked towards the door. Snow White moved and looked out the window, a broad smile appearing on her face. She excused herself quickly and rushed outside.

"Come on," Sora said to Kairi the second the raven-haired woman left. "Try it while she's not here. That way if you don't like it, you don't have to offend her."

"I don't want to."

"You're going to have to get used to trying new things," he said seriously. "With Roxas' and Naminé's help we'll be able to move from world to world, but we may not run across one with familiar food for a while." She pouted at this information, and he rolled his eyes and held out the fork. "Try it."

She blushed a bit but ate the tiny piece. She made a face and said, "I guess it's okay. I like the food at home though."

Sora laughed a bit, and they both looked around again as Snow White appeared, leading a tall young man behind her. Sora and Kairi both stood up when they noticed the grim faces that both Snow White and the man were wearing

"This is my husband, Lukas. Lukas, this is Sora and Kairi. They're the ones I told you about from before, when Maleficent took me," Snow White explained with a rather sad look on her face. "He just returned from searching the villages nearby, and whatever is happen is worse than I thought. The reason the dwarves were attacked is because they were mistaken as children."

"Children?" Kairi asked with alarm. "Something is attacking children?" She whirled around to Sora and said, "Those small Heartless on Destiny Islands…"

He nodded his head quickly, a stern expression on his face as he looked at Snow White. "They're attacking children?"

"Not attacking," Lukas explained. "Taking them. It seems any children around the age of ten or under are taken."

"What about the parents? They're just letting them?" Kairi asked, sounding slightly hysterical. She had always had a soft spot for children and planned on having several when she was older, so the thought of someone harming a child hit her hard.

Sora moved his arm to her shoulder in a comforting gesture, and Lukas said, "No. Everyone else has had a spell cast over them."

"A spell, like what kind?"

"This may sound a bit mad, but everyone looks like they're made of either plants or wood now."

Sora and Roxas simultaneously remembered crystals trapping them in their mind. This sounded very similar.

"So, someone is taking children," Sora said slowly. "And leaving behind anyone else under these spells."

"Many have been killed as well," Prince Lukas said with a sigh. "I have yet to actually see an attack, but I've seen the aftermath many times now."

"Okay, so this is all about the kids then," the brunet said reluctantly. He felt Kairi tense up under his hand.

She turned around to face him and said, "Sora, those Heartless were definitely the Heartless of some children. I'm positive. Something's hurting them badly."

Sora couldn't stand to see the tears in her eyes, so he pulled her close and let her hide her face in his shirt. He looked up at Snow White and Prince Lukas and asked, "Do you know anything else?"

"No," Snow White answered for both of them slowly. "I wish I had more answers, but I don't."

Sora nodded his head and hugged Kairi. They would figure this out; they had to.

**Jiminy's Journal**

**Snow White** – One of the Seven Princesses of Heart. Snow White is a kind, polite girl who loves to cook and clean. She tries to help as many people as she can, but she's not nearly as naive or trusting as she was years ago, when she was tricked into eating a poison apple by her stepmother, the Wicked Queen. First appeared in _Snow White and the Seven Dwarves_ (1937)

**Prince Lukas** – The husband of Snow White. It was his kiss that awoke Snow White from her eternal sleep after she ate the poisoned apple. First appeared in _Snow White and the Seven Dwarves_ (1937). (**AN:** He was never given a name beyond Prince, so I chose the name Lukas because it's a common German name, and the Snow White supposedly originated in Germany before the Grimm Brother's collected it.)

**The Seven Dwarves** – Seven dwarves that befriend Snow White and allow her to live with them. They are all very loyal to her, and proved it when they defeated the Wicked Queen. Their names are: Bashful (green hat), Doc (red hat), Dopey (purple hat), grumpy (brown hat), Happy (orange headpiece that smiles a lot), Sleepy (blue hat), and Sneezy (orange headpiece, red nose). First appeared in _Snow White and the Seven Dwarves_ (1937).

Dwarf Woodland – A world once ruled by an evil Queen before she was defeated around twelve years ago. There are small villages, but for the most part, the world is made up of a vast forest. Key residences are Snow White, The Seven Dwarves, and the Prince.

**Author's Notes**

First, I am going to shamelessly promote my things on other websites. I put links to the redone versions of several Keyblades that appear in this fic, and while to those who have not read this original Shadows of a Dream (which I do not recommend you do cause a lot is changing) it's a slight bit of a spoiler it doesn't really matter. It'll just help you get a visual when the Keyblades appear in this fic. Tell me what you think of them and my mad photoshop skills. lol

Second, Shire Folk, there's something in here I specifically altered just for you. I remembered your spazzes from before and figured I wouldn't drive you to spazzing again this time. Ten Canadian Bucks says you figure out what it is the second you read this.

Peace Out

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	11. History

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Ten – History_

The one thing that Riku never liked about dealing with portals that anyone else made was that he could never predict what would happen. When he had the ability to make his own, he was so good at it that he could disappear and reappear in another place almost instantly, instead of walking through some sort of corridor. The only time he had done that was for Kairi and Pluto once he got the hang of it.

He couldn't say that he was all that surprised that Roxas (and, come to think of it, Naminé too) was one of the few in the Organization that had never been able to instantly jump around everywhere. From what Sora had told him, when he first joined the Organization, other people used to have to open corridors of darkness for him, and even when he figured out how to do it himself, he was only ever able to get to worlds that he had been to before.

That could have easily implied that they were going to a world Roxas had been to before. It was a likely bet, but the only problem was that Roxas had gone unconscious before they had left the corridor he had made. That could have messed something up too, even though they hadn't seen any sort of changes. The next problem was that, even if they were going to the worlds Roxas had been to, Riku had no clue exactly where the blond had been.

It most likely would have been written down in Roxas' journal, but neither he nor DiZ had been given the chance to look it over. It had vanished when they sent Roxas to the virtual Twilight Town, and even though she denied it fiercely, Riku had a strong feeling that Naminé had something to do with it. She had protested again them erasing Roxas' memories, saying that he wanted to meet Sora and that they should let him.

In retrospect, Riku figured that she was right. It would have saved them a lot of trouble in the long run. But Roxas had been so up in arms about getting revenge on the Organization by the time Riku had met him that the thought hadn't even occurred to him.

"Where are we?" he heard one of the small children ask as the bright light started to dim and shapes started to appear around them.

It took a few moments for Riku to recognize where they were, and he only did because of the large castle in the distance that still looked tainted with darkness. The once dead hills looked a little more alive with grass and flowers, and there were waterways working once again. It made the world look a little more alive.

"We're in Hallow Bastion," Riku said, his eyes still on the castle. He couldn't help but notice how, instead of rising waterfalls around the castle or even just barren rock, it was now filled in with calm water. While that made it look a little better, the large Heartless emblem on the castle reminded him of what he had done in there to his friends.

"This isn't Hallow Bastion anymore," an excited voice said suddenly. The children, Selphie, Wakka, Tidus and even Riku all looked around with confusion, but they couldn't see where the voice was coming from.

"That's right, this is Radiant Garden," another voice agreed.

"It's a much better name. Hey! I like your hair! Is it made from real silver? If so, can we have it?"

Riku turned around when he felt something tug at his long, silver hair. He was about to yell at whoever it was, but when he saw them, he froze. To say that Riku had seen a lot of weird things in his life would have been an understatement, but he had never once seen three, tiny floating girls before. The one who had been yanking at his hair and was close to his face had oddly styled blonde hair, and was eyeing his own with interest. There was one with hair coloured much like his own, but she was floating farther away with a stoic expression on her face. The final one was looking at something over Riku's shoulder with interest showing in her mismatched blue and green eyes.

"Um, excuse me!" the little blonde one said, seemingly annoyed with his lack of an answer. "Can we have it, or what?"

"Have what?" Riku asked. He was still a little stunned about the fate of Destiny Islands, and the fates of Sora and Kairi. It didn't help that there were three tiny people in front of him!

Tidus chuckled at his friend, crossed his arms in front of himself and said, "I think they want your hair, Riku."

"Huh? Why would I want my own hair?" the blonde girl asked.

"He was walking to me," Riku said to her, feeling slightly ridiculous about talking to a tiny, floating girl (he could not get used to the concept. At least when Sora was flying around Neverland he was normal sized). "My name's Riku."

"Really?" she asked excitedly, all talk about his hair forgotten. "I'm Rikku too. You probably spell your name with one K, right? Mine's better cause it has two!"

The excited little pixie was interrupted by a squeal coming from the one with two different coloured eyes. Riku looked around and watched as she suddenly flew passed him, her long braid whipping him in the cheek as she did. She let out a happy laugh as she hugged Tidus' head. He gave her a confused look as she glanced at the stoic one and said, "Isn't he the cutest, Paine?"

"Sure Yuna," she said, sounding rather uninterested.

Rikku seemed to remember what she had been asking before and kicked Riku in the ear to get his attention. He looked back at her and she asked, "Well, since I guess we can't have your hair, can we have your treasure?"

"What treasure? I don't have any treasure."

"Yuna!" Paine called out, ignoring Riku and Rikku. "Get off of him."

"Why? I like him!"

The three girls continued their string of obnoxious chatter, and Riku squeezed the bridge of his nose. He already had a bad headache from everything that happened so far, so it was no surprise that it was only getting worse.

"Yuna! Rikku! Paine!"

They all looked around and suddenly flew into the air out of reach. "Oh, hi Leon!" Yuna called out to him.

The tall man made his way towards the group, his brown hair falling into his eyes as he moved. A few of the children backed away from this scarred stranger, standing behind Wakka and Tidus while moving closer to Selphie.

"Leon?" Riku asked. "As in Squall Leonhart?"

"Who wants to know?" he asked, eyeing Riku with a suspicious look, his hand resting just above his gunblade, should he need it.

"He has the same name as me!" Rikku declared proudly.

The only reaction they saw in the man was his eyebrow raising slightly as he eyed the silver-haired young man in front of him. "Riku? As in Sora's friend Riku?"

"That's me," Riku said with a nod of his head.

Leon looked around, as if expecting to see something else. He looked over at all of the frightened children and ran a hand through his hair. "Where's Sora?"

"We don't know," Riku replied simply.

Leon nodded his head and said, "Follow me. We'll get inside where there's less of a chance that we'll be overheard by anyone."

Riku glanced back at his friends and the children. They all looked at him hopelessly, and he realized that while he had never met the people Sora called his friends before, they were more out of their element than he was.

"Come on," he said to them. "Sora trusts these people, so we can too."

The children stayed close together as they followed Riku and Selphie. Wakka and Tidus coming up in the rear because they didn't want anything to jump out at the small children from behind.

**VVVVVVV**

Aerith's forest green eyes studied the newcomers from Destiny Islands. The younger children were all quite frightened and preferred staying in a group. There wasn't that many of them, only about six. What was sad about that was the fact that Aerith was sure that these children, as well as the four elder teenagers, were the only ones to escape the destruction of their home. They had been quite nervous about Leon, and all of them had been downright terrified by Cid, but in all fairness, when he had arrived he had been cursing and swearing at Merlin.

They seemed drawn to her though, and she supposed it was because she was an adult, and she was female. She was a representation of the comfort and stability that they needed in this dark time. The young children let her look over their injuries, and once she declared them all in good shape, Yuffie took over as babysitter extraordinaire and led them to another room.

She hadn't been able to get the others to let her check them over though. All of them wanted answers as to why their home was destroyed again. It was true, Selphie, Wakka and Tidus didn't remember their home being destroyed before, but Riku did. They all were worried about the people they left behind, and the people who were separated from them on the way there.

Leon was speaking to Merlin and the newly returned Cloud around the table, most likely trying to figure out exactly what the Heartless were up to now, and who was controlling them. Cid was typing frantically at his computer, but that wasn't surprising for him. Still, he was working a little harder than normal. Like Aerith, Tifa was simply observing everything from her position by the door with her arms crossed and a frown on her face. Aerith knew she would never admit it because she was stubborn and strong, but the thought of something attack those children bothered her more than anything else. The woman always had had a soft spot for children.

"We need to get to Mickey," Riku said suddenly. "If anyone has any sort of idea what's going on, it would be him."

"I've been trying," Cid replied in his gruff voice. "I got in touch with him briefly earlier. It looked like he was on a gummi ship, but that was a few days ago. Communication hasn't been good for the past while."

Riku looked at him oddly and asked, "How long have you known that the Heartless and the Nobodies were acting up again?"

"Not too long," Yuffie said as she came in the room. The children were all eating, so she wanted to see what was going on.

"Not too long?" Tifa repeated angrily, causing Yuffie to take a step away from her warily. "Those things have been all over the place since just after you guys supposedly stopped Organization XIII."

"It was gradual," Leon admitted. "We were expecting a few Heartless to be around, but day after day, it was like one or two more were added until there was just too many of them. Then the Nobodies showed up again. Odd thing is they don't seem to care for each other all that much."

"Why didn't someone tell us?" Riku wondered. "We got a letter from King Mickey saying that he thought something was wrong with Jiminy's journal and a few other small things, but it didn't sound like the real Heartless were acting up any. He just told us to enjoy our time at home, just in case we got called back."

"The King didn't lie," Cloud spoke up. "The darkness has grown a lot recently. Like Leon said, it was gradual at first. Then it just exploded."

Riku nodded and asked, "So, you think Mickey was in a gummi ship? On his way here maybe?"

"It's possible," Merlin explained, "but Disney isn't all that far from here. It wouldn't take over a day to get from there to here. I imagine they ended up stopping in a few places along the way."

"Or their ship was damaged," Cid added. "If the warp gummi busted, then it would take a few days to get here. All of the new ships come with the warp drives installed so people don't have to go through the same problems Sora did with trying to collect them. I'll hand it to those chipmunks, they're smart when it comes to that kind of thing."

"So, if they were traveling," Riku said thoughtfully, "there's a good chance that they'll probably wind up here soon."

"Soon? How about now?" a high, but strong voice said. Nobody could deny that King Mickey Mouse had amazing timing. He always showed up just in the nick of time when people needed him.

Everyone in the room turned to look at the origin of the voice and found themselves staring at a large mouse with an oversized duck and an anthropomorphic dog on either side of him. Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy Goof were always some of the first to handle the dangers that arose in the universe, and maybe it wasn't fair to them, but it was their duty.

"Riku," Donald quacked, "what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be on Destiny Islands?"

"Yeah," Goofy agreed thoughtfully, "and shouldn't Sora be with you?"

No one answered him, all of them looking uncomfortable at the question. Although Riku had a feeling that Selphie, Wakka and Tidus hadn't answered because they were all stunned at the appearance of these three creatures more than anything.

"The Heartless got to Destiny Islands, didn't they?" Mickey asked, distress filtering through his dark eyes. "I thought…I thought for sure that that world would have been safe."

Riku nodded and said, "The four of us, and a few kids that are in the kitchen were the only ones to get away. Sora and Kairi were with us, but when we were traveling through the darkness to get here, something happened. Sora hurt his head badly a few weeks ago, and he ended up hitting it again. I guess it affected him more than he let on because first Roxas vanished and then Sora passed out. He was carrying Kairi, and they both fell through a portal that closed directly behind them."

"They could be anywhere then!" Donald exclaimed, automatically going to the worst-case scenario. "They could have ended up in The World That Never Was! Or in the Underworld!"

"Gawrsh Donald, try to think positive," Goofy said to his friend. "They also could have ended up with one of our friends too."

Mickey sighed and said, "I was hoping that you would be safe on Destiny Islands until we could find a safe, quick way to get you three." He looked around at everyone else in the room and added, "It looks like the Heartless and Nobodies are more ahead in their plans than we thought they were."

"What are their plans?"

Mickey hesitated before saying, "Well, we don't really know who is behind this yet. At first I thought it might have been Maleficent. We went back to see if the Castle that Never Was was still there, and while she does have many Heartless at her command, it doesn't look like she's the only one behind this."

"Yeah," Goofy agreed. "It looks like she was still planning and was just as surprised about what was happening as we were. At least with the Nobodies."

"The worst part is," Donald added, "the more Heartless there are-"

"The more Nobodies there are," Riku finished. "So we're dealing with someone else completely? Or are they just acting by themselves?"

"In these large groups? Going from world to world?" Mickey said while shaking his head. "No. When I said that we don't really know who is behind all of this, I meant that. We do know someone's behind it though. In some worlds, there have been people saying that dark figures are appearing. People. Alice, from Wonderland, said that they didn't try to hide their faces, but she couldn't see who they were. I'm willing to bet that there are more than just one of them too."

"Ansem worked alone," Riku pointed out.

"Not really," Mickey countered. "He used Maleficent, you and many others to do his dirty work for him before he took over. Anyway, this enemy looks worse."

"How much worse?" He remembered Sora muttering about how someone told him that things were just going to get worse from here on it, but he couldn't imagine it getting much worse than destroying worlds.

"They haven't been collecting hearts," Mickey admitted. "They don't seem to care about them at all. In fact, they've been killing the people that get in their way."

"Maybe they're on a psycho revenge, killing spree?" Selphie piped up after the shock of seeing a large, talking mouse wore off. Everyone turned to look at her and she shifted uncomfortably. "What? From what I've heard, you guys and Sora completely whooped that Order ("Organization," Tidus corrected) and the witch before."

"No," Riku said, "it doesn't feel like that's the case." How he could feel what was going on, he wasn't sure. What he was sure about was that he had high doubts that this was someone out to get revenge.

"Riku's right," Mickey agreed. "Goofy here managed to get a quick glimpse at one of them himself."

"Yeah," Goofy said. "They were actually complaining about the Organization."

"So there's no love felt there," Riku said.

"So," Yuffie said slowly, "there's a group made up of an unknown amount of unknown people traveling from world to world for unknown reasons. On top of that, Maleficent is controlling a wicked amount of Heartless and is starting to attack worlds, Destiny Islands probably being the first. While all this is happening super fast, Sora, our best chance for getting out of this mess, and Kairi, a Princess of Heart, have gone AWOL. Did I get anything wrong?"

"You definitely have a way with words, yuffie," Leon muttered while shaking his head.

"Why, thank you Squall."

"It wasn't a compliment, and my name's Leon."

She shrugged in response.

"Is there any way we can try to find Sora and Kairi?" Riku asked. "Like, is there a way we could track them?"

Mickey tapped his foot and folded his arms in thought. He gave Riku an uncomfortable look before saying, "The best way I can think of tracking them would be the amount of Heartless that will be after them. I imagine both this unknown group as well as Maleficent will be trying to get at Sora. That's probably why she went for Destiny Islands first, because she wasn't attacking worlds before this. On our side, he's their greatest threat, but on their side, he's one of their greatest allies."

"Sora would never help them," Riku shot back quickly. "He would never be like me and change sides."

Mickey looked hesitant before he said, "I know he wouldn't. That's why they'll probably try to get rid of him by sending a lot of Heartless after him."

"So we wait and see which worlds get hit the hardest with Heartless and Nobodies?" Tifa suddenly asked. "That seems like a pretty bad plan to me."

"Won't they try to find us?" Goofy asked.

"They don't have a Gummi Ship," Donald pointed out.

"Can't they just run through portals like we did to get here?" Tidus asked. "That's what that Roxas…guy did."

Riku nodded and said, "Roxas and Naminé can open portals, so odds are that Sora and Kairi will be moving around. From the looks of the portal we came through though, I doubt Roxas, or Naminé for that matter, will be able to focus on a specific place. They'll probably just go to random places."

"It would be a bad idea to stay in one place," Mickey agreed. "So they'll probably move."

"If they can move," Wakka said suddenly. Everyone turned to look at him with dark looks, especially Riku.

Selphie smacked him in the back of the head and said, "You have no tact."

"Hey, I'm just saying the truth. Sora was passed out, Kairi too. If they fell the wrong way, hit something when coming out of the portal, or were unconscious and captured by someone…"

"Wakka," Tidus said quickly, "stop! It's not helping."

Riku sighed and said, "I'm going to find them." He glanced at Mickey, who nodded in agreement. "You guys, you all need to stay here. It's safer, and they might end up here anyway."

"I wish there was a way we could help more," Tidus said.

"We can train you while you're here," Yuffie said. "The more people ready to fight these things off, the better."

"That's a good idea," Mickey agreed. "I have a feeling that, in the long run, we'll need more people to fight."

**VVVVVVV**

Riku wasn't accustom to a gummi ship. He couldn't actually remember a time when he had the need to be on one at all. The steering looked completely foreign to him, but then again, cars were rare on Destiny Islands. Only a handful of people had them because there wasn't much use for them aside from medical purposes.

Needless to say, Riku wasn't allowed to operate the ship in any way, shape, or form. He had to admit, seeing Donald and Goofy work it with ease made him feel a little put off that they wouldn't let him try, but Donald was firm. He said that the first time Sora tried to fly they ended up crashing. Goofy was quick to point out that Sora always flew the gummi ship last time, but Donald ignored him.

Looking at the control panel again, Riku had no clue how his friend managed to fly something like this.

"Riku," Mickey said suddenly, "can you come with me for a second. There's something important I need to discuss with you."

Riku nodded and quickly followed the moue King back towards another room. He watched the miniature king pace back and forth for a moment before he started to speak. "A lot of odd things have been happening lately, and it makes me worried that something bad is coming. Something even worse than what we're possibly facing now."

"What? What could make you think that it's going to get worse?"

Mickey hesitated for a moment before looking out the porthole and saying, "More Keyblade Bearers are appearing."

"More—how's that possible?" Riku asked, completely stunned. "I thought that there could only be a handful at one time."

"No, not exactly," Mickey explained. "You see there are generally only a few Keyblade Bearers at one point of time by choice. In the past, they've always belonged to an Order of sorts with only a few exceptions, like myself. Normally, not only does a Keyblade Bearer need to have the natural ability to wield a Keyblade within them, but they also need to take part in some sort of ceremony."

"Ceremony? I never did that."

"I think you did," Mickey said while staring at Riku thoughtfully. "It's just a feeling I have. It's the same with Kairi. Sora is something different all together though. You have to understand, most people couldn't just call themselves Keyblade Masters. They were only Bearers until they passed some sort of trial or test to become a Master. I've researched Keyblades a lot though, and there have been rumors in the past that a specially chosen person can be born as the Keyblade Master. He or she would only appear in a time of great darkness though."

"Sora," Riku said after a moment.

"That's the only think that makes sense," Mickey agreed. "The power he has, and the way he learns everything without a Master is phenomenal. While I'm not your real master, I did teach you, and to an extent Xehanort's Heartless did as well. Sora's always just pushed himself on his own though."

"Are there any Keyblade Masters alive today? Aside from Sora?"

Mickey shook his head sadly and said, "Not that I know of. I was never actually in this Keyblade Order before, but as far as I know, it died with the last trainees a long time ago."

"So," Riku asked thoughtfully, "who is performing the ritual to give these other people Keyblades?"

"That's the thing I don't understand either. I had Master Yen Sid instructing me in the ways of the Keyblade, so for all I know at one point of time maybe he too was a Keyblade Master, I don't know. If not it probably had something to do with his strong magical powers. For so many to simple get their Keyblades at random though is impossible, and I'm positive that the only Master alive is Sora."

"Well, you said he's a different story all together, right?" Riku said. "Maybe he's performing some sort of ritual subconsciously when he meets people, even if he doesn't realize it."

"I suppose that could be true."

There was a heavy silence between the two before Riku asked, "Why are you so worried about more Keyblade Bearers appearing. Isn't this a good thing?"

Mickey shook his head and said, "The last time so many Keyblade Bearers were seen was years and years ago, long before I was even born. Many of them became corrupt with power, jealous of others. It was only natural. They were manipulated by the darkness and became one with it. Those who fell trained others in the darkness. In the end, the enemy that the Keyblade Bearers needed to protect the worlds from were the Keyblade Bearers."

"What?" Riku asked, a stunned look on his face. "You mean…"

Mickey nodded and said, "The last recorded time that there were more than just a handful of Keyblade Bearers alive at one point of time was during the Keyblade Wars."

_**Jiminy's Journal**_

**Yuna** – The leader of a group of treasure hunters called the Gullwings. She's a pixie-type girl with blue and green eyes. She was spying for Maleficent at first with Rikku and Paine, but she switched sides to help fight the Heartless. She first appeared in Final Fantasy X.

**Rikku** – A blonde, spunky pixie-type girl and a member of the Gullwings. She has a lot of energy, and is usually seen as a very happy girl. She switched from Maleficent's side to help Sora. She first appeared in Final Fantasy X.

**Paine** – Much stoic and serious then you two friends, Paine too is a pixie-type girl and a member of the Gullwings. Like Rikku and Yuna, she switched from fighting for Maleficent to helping Sora with the Heartless. She first appeared in Final Fantasy X-2

**Squall "Leon" Leonhart** – A serious young man who stopped going by the name from Squall when he failed to help save Radiant Garden when it first became Hallow Bastion. He acts as a mentor to Sora and often helps him in fighting. He is part of the Resoration Committee to try and fix his home world. He first appeared in Final Fantasy VIII

**Aerith Gainsborough** – A friendly, optimistic young woman who has strong healing abilities. She was only young when Radiant Garden fell and she was sent to Traverse Town where she met Sora. She, like Leon, acts as a mentor for him at times. She first appeared in Fantasy VII.

**Yuffie Kisaragi** – An overly-active 18-year-old who calls herself the Greatest Ninja in Radiant Garden. She befriended Sora in Traverse Town, where she ended up after Radiant Garden was taken over by Heartless when she was only young. She often helps him fight Heartless, and is always bouncing with energy. She first appeared in Final Fantasy VII.

**Cid Highwind** – Cid is a gummi chip and computer whiz who lives in Radiant Garden. He often butts heads with Merlin, and is a little rough around the edges, but he's always willing to lend a hand to those who need it. He first appeared in Final Fantasy VII.

**Tifa Lockhart** –Tifa is an incredibly good fighter, and she's strong. When she first met Sora, she was searching for Cloud. She is always ready to help her friends, and has helped Sora since she met him. She first appeared in Final Fantasy VII.

**Cloud Strife** - First met Sora on Olympus Colisum where he was hired by Hades to kill Hercules. Cloud claimed to be on a quest searching for his light, and advised Sora not to lose his own light. After returning to his home world of Radiant Garden, he set to find Sephiroth to destroy him. He first appeared in Final Fantasy VII.

**Merlin **– A powerful wizard who makes his home in Radiant Garden. He first met Sora in Traverse Town where he taught him magic, and later provided the doorway to Timeless River. He's always ready to lend a hand, when not arguing with Cid. He first appeared in _The Sword and the Stone_ (1963).

**King Mickey Mouse** – The King of Disney, Mickey travels the universe to help fight the darkness. He used his Reverse Keyblade to help Sora lock the door to Kingdom Hearts, and later helped Riku in Castle Oblivion. After being separated from Riku, he eventually made his way to Sora, Donald and Goofy to help them. He first appeared in _Plane Crazy_, although the first Mickey Mouse cartoon was _Steamboat Willie_ (1928).

**Donald Duck** – The Mage of Disney, Donald was the first to discover Mickey missing. He and Goofy later teamed up with Sora, and they've been a team ever since. Donald is good with magic, but he is also known for having a very short patience span and a bad temper. He first appeared in _The Wise Little Hen_ (1934)

**Goofy Goof** – Goofy is the Captain of the Knights of Disney. He is always optimistic, a little bit gullible, but at the same time he also tends to say wise things that most people don't acknowledge. He is unwaveringly loyal to his friends, even if it means going against the mission he was given. He first appeared (originally as Dippy Dawg) in _Mickey's Revue_ (1932)

Radiant Garden – This world was originally destroyed by the darkness, given the name Hallow Bastion by Maleficent. When Sora sealed the Door to the Darkness in the castle, the people were able to return to help rebuild their home. This was Kairi's original home. Key characters: Leon, Aerith, Yuffie, Cid, Merlin, Tifa, Cloud, and the Gullwings.

**Author's Note**

I decided to be nice and update earlier than normal. That and I needed to do something aside from study for exams.

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	12. Magic Mirror

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Eleven – Magic Mirror_

Kairi was frustrated with herself, plain and simple. She was holding Sora back so much, but there wasn't that much they could do about it at the immediate time. She wasn't stupid, she knew that even though she had been training hard, she wasn't anywhere near her boyfriend or even Riku's level. She was far too emotional, far too passive.

Seeing Sora remain so calm when his mother too had vanished, seeing him keep a straight face when hearing about the children (even if she could read the emotions in his eyes), made her realize that she might not have been cut out for the journey that they were on like she had originally thought.

Her hand was intertwined with his own tightly as he led the way through the one thick forest. The trees were bare and dead now, but Kairi had a strong feeling that it wasn't supposed to be like this. The random patches of vegetation were enough proof of this.

Sora didn't bother keeping his Keyblade in his grasp. His senses were sharp and he was in-tune with the weapon enough so that, if they were suddenly attacked, he could still summon it without a problem. Kairi was another issue though. She could summon it fairly quickly, but she was nearly prepared enough to go on her own and fight.

At least when Sora had been torn away from their home, he knew the basics of sword fighting. Even as he slept for a year, the memories constantly going through his mind kept him sharp, and Roxas' physical use of the Keyblade during that time had helped him too. It made him stronger without actually doing anything himself.

She let out a sigh, causing Sora to turn around and stare at her curiously. She smiled weakly and said, "I'm just going to distract you this time too, aren't I?"

He stopped walking and faced her completely, a frown passing over his features. "Of course you're not. I was fourteen then Kairi, and tact was never my strong suit. I just didn't have another way to say that I didn't want you to get hurt because I cared about you so much."

"You could have said that you didn't want me to get hurt because you cared about me so much," she pointed out.

Sora rolled his eyes and said, "I was fourteen. At first I couldn't tell if what I was feeling were actual feelings about you or just a bad fish I ate. What's with the suddenly doubt?"

She summoned her Keyblade, taking in the strictly feminine colours and design to it. It was something, as a young child, she might have enjoyed just because it was so girlish and pretty, but she didn't appreciate it much now. It was almost degrading to her. Of course she would get the extremely feminine Keyblade. It was about as useless as she was, in her opinion.

Frustration filled her small body and she shook his head, trying to force herself not to cry. She didn't know when her urge to cry had started. She had always been a rather spunky child since she came to Destiny Islands, always wanting to keep up with the boys. It was like all of her will to fight broke when Sora was gone.

She failed in hiding her tears. Sora placed his hands gently on her cheeks and wiped the tears as they fell. He pulled her close to him, and she cried into the dark fabric of his shirt, purely ashamed of herself. Her Keyblade vanished as she moved into his arms.

"Hey, it's okay," he whispered to her. Why he whispered, he wasn't quite sure because they were the only living creatures in the forest for miles around.

"How'd you do this to me?" she asked with a sob as she wrapped her arms around his waist, holding onto him tightly.

"How'd I do what?"

She backed away from him so that she could look at him eye to eye. She sniffed and said, "When I was waiting for you, I broke. Something inside of me just wanted to stop fighting. Now when I need to fight, I cant. I'm useless."

"That's not true," Sora insisted. "You've been training and when you put your mind to it, you're good."

"But not as good as you," she said. "Maybe, maybe if I had gotten my Keyblade when I was younger like you did. I—why didn't I get one then?"

"Naminé," Sora answered.

"What?"

"Well, when the Keyblade appeared first, that was when Destiny Islands was dying. Already then, your heart was being removed from you and put into me," Sora explained while holding her close. "Then, when you got your heart back, Naminé was separated from you. The fact that all of you wasn't actually in you stopped the Keyblade from appearing. The only reason it kept coming to me after I was split from Roxas, and to Roxas for that matter, is because we were already strongly connected to the Keyblade. Make sense?"

"I—I guess."

"You were meant to have that Keyblade, Kairi," Sora said, moving so that he was standing almost directly behind her. He moved so one arm was wrapped around her shoulder, the other aligned with hers. "Summon it."

Destiny Place appeared in her hand, and Sora wrapped his fingers around hers as they held on tightly to it. They didn't move or say anything for a moment until Sora said, "You're right, it is extremely girly though. Almost insulting."

She nodded her head and Sora removed the arm that was around her shoulder. He slid his hand into her pouch and took out the Oathkeeper Keychain. He clicked it into place at the end of her Keyblade, and the flowers changed into the elegant weapon that Sora was so fond of.

"This one is more you," he whispered to her. "I'll help you train more. We'll keep fighting and practicing until you realize just how not-hopeless you really are."

"Thank you," Kairi whispered as Oathkeeper vanished so that she could turn to hug him affectionately. She didn't know how, but he always knew how to make her feel better.

Sora hugged her back and hear Roxas say, _'You know, I bet she would give you almost anything right now for that.'_

'Yeah, like what?'

'_I dunno. You could probably ask to get laid though.'_

Sora was glad that Kairi couldn't see his face as he blushed a brilliant red. He glared inwardly (it was possible because he said so) at his Nobody, mentally telling him to keep quiet.

'_Hey, I'm you. These are your thoughts buddy.'_

"Why did we find Roxas again?" Sora mumbled.

Kairi moved away from him and grinned, placing a hand on his still blushing face. "What did he say?"

"He just makes it his personal goal to drive me insane," he explained in a matter of fact voice.

She laughed and said, "It's just like having a brother running around in your head then." Her vigor was restored, and Sora could see this as she said, "I hope we get to the Keyhole soon so he and Naminé can create a portal to get us out of here. I don't want to sleep in the woods tonight."

"You know, to keep getting stronger, staying outside is required some of the time," he replied playfully.

Kairi quickly moved close to him and pushed herself up on her tiptoes, kissing him deeply. Before Sora could return the kiss though, she quickly backed away, smiling at him slyly. "If you want me to do that for now on, we'll be getting out of these woods soon."

"That's blackmail," he said, both stunned and amused at the same time.

She blew him a kiss and continued walking while giggling. Sora let out a sigh and quickly rushed after her, holding onto her hand tightly.

**VVVVVV**

Despite being Keyblade Bearers, both with an odd amount of stamina (Sora more so than Kairi) they were still, in fact, human. All humans got tired eventually, all humans got hungry, and all humans needed to rest.

Kairi had been a trooper, that much Sora and Roxas inwardly agreed on. He had known that she was tired earlier on than he was, but she kept going, not wanting to slow him down. By the time he felt a little tired, she looked positively exhausted, so he insisted that they take a break. She had tried to act nonchalant about the entire thing, but Sora could see how grateful she was.

They had reached the edge of a cliff overlooking the large expanse of forests in from of them. The sunset in front of them was beautiful with its vibrant golds and oranges, but it was nothing compared to Destiny Islands. What truly distracted from the possibly extremely romantic atmosphere was the dead forest below and around them. Whatever it was attacking the Dwarf Woodlands was destroyed it from it's very core.

"What do you think caused it?" Kairi asked him.

"I'm not sure," he replied honestly as they sat at the edge of the cliff, staring out at the contrast of the lively sky and the dead forest.

Silence settled upon them again until Kairi suggested, "Prince Lukas said that the people looked like they had been turned into plants or something, right? Well, maybe whoever did it took…I dunno…the life force from the planet to use."

"You know," Sora admitted after a moment of silence, "I never thought of that, but that's actually a pretty good idea." He leaned over and kissed her forehead affectionately as he moved his arm around her shoulder.

She smiled broadly up at him and leaned onto him with a sigh. Her feet ached terribly, but it was infinitely better than the heartache she felt when Sora wasn't with her.

She turned her gaze up to him as the memories of standing on the beach filled her mind. She hadn't known who she was waiting for at one point of time, but she knew that she was waiting for someone, and that he was someone she held very close to her heart. The only other time she had felt so helpless was when she watched him vanish after sacrificing himself for her.

Moving her head from his shoulder, she stared at his face with interest. Sora seemed to sense her staring, and looked down at her curiously, his cerulean eyes studying her. She grinned up at him before moving close and giving him a quick kiss on the cheek and resting her head on his shoulder.

Sora didn't ask her why she did what she did. Instead, he just inhaled deeply, catching the scent of flowers mixed with the sea. He knew that both of these smells would fade, because people didn't naturally smell like that kind of thing. He sighed and said, "We should get moving soon."

"Think we're gonna spend the night here anyway?" Kairi asked him hazily.

Sora bit his lip as he thought about this. Earlier, he would have sworn he heard something following them, but he didn't alert Kairi to this. He had kept listening, and every once and a while he would hear some shuffling that didn't belong to either him or his girlfriend. They hadn't come across an animal once in their travels through the Dwarf Woodland, so Sora highly doubt that it was anything like that.

"I'd rather we didn't," Sora answered her finally. "I don't like it here in the woods. Not these ones anyway. Besides, there might be a cheap hotel in the next world."

"What happened to being able to spend time outdoors?"

Sora laughed a bit and said, "Just because I can stand camping without any sort of bed or anything doesn't mean I want to."

"You know, another world could be worse," she pointed out.

"Yeah, but I'd rather get out of here."

Kairi frowned as she moved a bit away from him to stare at him with concern. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Don't lie to me."

Her words had a surprising strength behind them, and it was like some sort of twisted black magic on him. It automatically made him want to do everything that she told him to.

'_You are totally whipped man.'_

'You are me, so suck it up, you are too.'

"I think there's been something following us all day," Sora admitted. "I keep hearing something and it's not either of us. I don't know what it is, but I want to get away from it."

She nodded at him, and although anybody else would think she was perfectly calm, he could see the flash of fear that passed across her features.

"Nothings going to happen to you," he said firmly. "If it's the last thing I ever do, nothing is ever going to hurt you. I swear it."

Kairi didn't get the chance to answer as Sora pulled both of them to their feet. He pulled her close to him before moving one of his hands beside her shoulders and the other under her knees. She let out a small scream from surprised as he scooped her up, and she automatically looped her arms around his neck. "What are you doing?"

"You trust me?" he asked her.

That was an incredibly stupid question on his part, but he wasn't always the brightest crayon in the box, so she would let it go this time. "Of course I do. You should know that by now."

He smiled slightly at her and rested his head on top of hers and said, "Close your eyes, and hide your face."

She stared at him for a moment before doing as he said, pressing her face into the crook between his neck and his shoulders. Sora then took a step towards the edge of the cliff, and jumped.

Kairi didn't like the 'lighter than air' feeling that came with the jump. Rollercosters, those she could take, but put her on some sort of ride that dropped her and she was a nervous wreck. It felt exactly like that. If she wouldn't have seen Sora escape an insanely high fall before, she probably would have been panicking and screaming her head off, but she trusted him and that's what mattered.

She thought for sure that his knees were going to give out when he hit the ground. They bent under him from the force, but he quickly straightened himself out.

Kairi moved her head away from him and loosened her grip. She pouted and shoved his shoulder before saying, "You're a crazy idiot."

He laughed and replied, "That's no reason to smack me around Miss Kairi. Is this going to be an abusive relationship? Cause if so, I may just have to get out of it now before it gets too bad."

Kairi giggled at him and said, "I won't abuse you much, promise. Can you put me down now?"

He seemed to think this over before nodding his head and letting go of her feet. She straightened herself up, but he still didn't remove his hand from in her shoulders. In fact, he looked his other around her from behind and held her close, sighing into her hair.

"You okay?" she asked him with worry as she felt a him lean on her a little more than he normally would.

"Yeah," he muttered into her hair. "I don't think I should have jumped. My head feels a little woozy now."

Kairi frowned and turned around to face him, running her hand along the place where his stitches were before Snow White healed it more. She frowned a bit and said, "Maybe this is going to be one of the wounds that never completely gets better. Stays a little tender or something, you know."

"I don't want another one of those."

She laughed suddenly and said, "That's right, you know exactly what I'm talking about." She moved her hand up and ran it across his collarbone, causing him to jerk away from her. Kairi grinned at him and added, "I'll always know how to beat you."

Sora grinned at her and shook his head. He held out his hand to her and she took it in her own. She smiled warmly back at him and the two continued on their way deep into constantly darkening forest.

Above the two, staring down from the cliff where they had once stood, a slim shadowed figure watched them leave with interest. She put a hand on her hip and said, "Well, that's certainly interesting."

**VVVVVV**

Hidden in the deepest part of the forest is where the Keyhole was hidden. That was exactly what Snow White had told them. She wanted them to seal the world's Keyhole before they left, just in case. Sora thought it was a pretty good idea since he had never been on this world and wasn't sure if it was locked or unlocked.

Once they got close, it was easy to spot. Odds were that it had been hidden by the thick forest vegetation, but with all of that gone, the wooden door stood out strongly.

Both of them were relieved that they had finally found the Keyhole. Sora took a step towards it when Kairi suddenly let out a scream.

He shot around, only to be thrown to the side by something hitting him in the side. He groaned as his back hit one of the dead trees, feeling winded.

He looked up and saw a large Heartless in front of him. It looked like one of the plant ones he had come across before, but he had never seen one that big before. Roxas quickly told him that he had seen them frequently and that they were hard to beat. The head was the only part that could be injured.

The plant look at him and was about to slam itself down onto him, when Oathkeeper smashed into it. The plant looked around at Kairi, who held her Keyblade out in front of her and was glaring at it intensely. She managed to jump out of the way as the creature slammed its head onto the ground, stunning itself. She rushed towards it, slamming her Keyblade into it repeatedly.

Sora was about to get up to join the fight, but he stopped and kept lying on the ground instead, making it look like he was unconscious.

'_What are you doing?'_ Roxas yelled at him.

'Letting her fight,' Sora replied. 'If it gets too bad, I'll jump in.'

'_She's going to be pissed at you if she finds out you're faking.'_

'Maybe, but she'll get a little more confidence in herself.'

Roxas couldn't deny that fact, so he stayed silent.

Kairi was glad that she had taken gymnastics when she was younger. She managed to flip out of the way of the seeds it shot at her, and even managed to knock one back at it once. Her only train of thought was that this thing had hurt Sora. He had been hurt and he needed her, so she couldn't just stand back and be a wimp.

Finally, she managed to throw herself at it's face and slammed Oathkeeper into it. Instead of resistance this time though, her blade slashed through it entirely as it vanished.

She landed on the ground, breathing heavily for a moment. She didn't think about her victory, instead she shot towards Sora's side.

"Sora, are you alright?"

He groaned, and slowly opened his eyes, looking around curiously. "Where's the Heartless?"

"I got rid of it," she said to him, looking him over for injuries. She was so focused on her task that she didn't really notice that he got up a little quicker than a person who had just woken up should have.

"You got—see! I told you that you weren't useless!" he said happily.

Kairi looked up at him with confusion, but returned his hug when he pulled her in. "Don't you see baby? You defeated that high level Heartless on your own!"

She thought back to the creature and her eyes widened as she realized what he as saying was true. She had fought and destroyed it on her own.

Letting out a laugh, Kairi gave him a kiss. Sora returned her happy embrace, and for once he was the one that needed to pull away first. Usually he could go longer than she could without air, but it seemed that she was determined to be her best at everything that day.

They got off of the group and looked towards the Keyhole. Sora held out his hand and the Keyblade appeared. Kairi watched with interest as he pointed it towards the wooden door, and a bright beam of light shot out, connecting with the Keyhole. She could hear an audible click of a lock, and then it faded away, becoming just a stain on the wood of the door.

"So, are we leave?" Roxas asked as he appeared beside Sora.

Naminé appeared beside Kairi and said, "We should. I have a bad feeling about staying here too long."

Sora and Kairi both nodded in agreement, and Roxas help out his hand. The dark corridor opened in front of them, anonymously swirling only a few feet away.

"Do you know where it goes?" Kairi asked Roxas.

"No," Roxas said simply.

"Neither of us are really that good at controlling these things," Naminé admitted. "It's because, although we can use darkness, we can only use a minimal amount. You two are far to pure hearted for us to be good with the darkness. Yes, that includes you Sora. You do have some darkness, but it's just barely there."

Sora thought about this for a moment before nodding his head, accepting what she said for the time being. The two Nobodies vanished back into their others, and Sora made sure to hold Kairi's hand tightly as they walked through the portal, leaving the Dwarf Woodlands for the unknown.

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	13. Two Worlds

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Twelve – Two Worlds_

Kairi wasn't certain if it ever snowed in Radiant Garden, but she had a feeling that it didn't. The glimpses of her past that she could remember consisted of bright flowers, flowing lakes and large waterfalls, but no snow. This caused her to be very curious about it, and she had decided (especially after hearing Sora recollect his adventures in the mountains of Land of Dragons and in Christmastown) that she wanted to see snow more than anything. Sora had even joked about putting that at the top of his to-do list.

Now though, only a minute in, Kairi wasn't enjoying the snow at all. Wherever they had ended up, it was worse than the Dwarf Woodlands. At least they could have slept without freezing to death there.

She hugged her arms around her body tightly, shivering as the wind whipped passed her. She had no clue how cold it actually was, but the bitterly piercing wind made her eyes water and her body quake from the sheer chill alone.

Sora, for his part, had never been in a snowstorm. He was a native to a tropical island, so it wasn't much of a surprise that the cold didn't really settle with him all that well. In the other places he had gone, the cold was bearable because there were no vicious winds or raging storms. Now though, as the cold bit at his bare legs and arms, he wished he was home more than ever.

He looked over at Kairi as her teeth chattered, and instantly felt bad for his internal complaining. Her pink dress was much shorter than his shorts were, and her arms were bare with her upper-back exposed. He pulled off his black, short-sleeved jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders, keeping his arms wrapping around her tightly.

"It's so cold," Kairi muttered as she pressed herself against him as much as she could. She turned around to look at him and asked, "Have you been here before?"

Sora held her close as he took the chance to look around, his hair whipping into his eyes annoyingly. He eyed the tall, thick trees, following their twisting forms up. His eyebrows furrowed as is took in the odd shapes. There was only one place that he had been to that had trees similar to that, but that was impossible, because the place he was thinking of was a jungle.

Still, if he was right and they were in Deep Jungle, then that meant there was either Jane's tent or the tree house that they could go into. Neither would be particularly warm, but it was better than nothing.

"Come on," he said to her. "I think I have an idea of where we are and where we can go to get out of this storm."

She nodded to him as she turned around to face the same direction he was, but she kept herself firmly pressed to her only source of heat. Sora didn't want to let her go either, because as much as he was trying to keep up a strong façade, he was absolutely freezing too.

Together, they started walking through the storm, and Sora hoped to Kingdom Hearts that he could get them to shelter before they both froze.

**VVVVVVVVVVV**

Kairi was sure that her fingers and her toes must have been blue as she hugged herself to Sora's side. He had wrapped his short-sleeved jacket around her arms to help, but it was made with a thin material, so it was no surprise that it didn't really help all that much.

Sora gave her a warm smile before letting go of her. She made a small noise of protest and Sora said, "Stay there. I'm just going to check around the corner over there. If I'm wrong, then we'll take that path right there, okay?"

Kairi nodded as she held his jacket around her arms jumped slightly on the spot. A second later, Sora rushed around the corner and said, "Come on! We can get out of the cold for a little while. It's not much, but it's better than nothing."

She eagerly rushed into his arms as he led her around the corner. A worn yellow tent was the first thing that Kairi saw before she walked straight into a snow-covered wooden crate, topping over. Sora, whom had been a few steps ahead of her, pulled her up from the ground, but he couldn't help but laugh.

She glared hotly at him, her face burning with embarrassment. Sora chuckled as he led her into the tent. He sealed the front as best as he could to keep the cold air out before moving around in the items.

As he rustled through a stack of papers, Kairi looked around at the images that had been pinned up to the side of the tent. She traced a picture of a large primate and said, "I recognize these. From Jiminy's journal."

Sora glanced over his shoulder at her and said, "Yeah, they're gorillas. The last time I was here, there were quite a few living around here."

Kairi frowned and asked, "Where are we?"

"Deep Jungle."

"What?" she asked, whirling around to look at him. "We're in a jungle?"

"Can't tell, can ya?" Sora asked rhetorically. He summoned his Keyblade and pointed it the large pile of papers and muttered, "Fire."

Kairi moved over by the fire quickly and said, "I think firaga would be more useful."

"We don't want to burn down the entire tent," he explained as he sat beside her and opened his arms. She snuggled up to him, desperate to get warm.

They sat together for a few moments until Sora suddenly moved away from her. She almost fell over and turned to look at him as he removed his gloves, shoes and socks. He set them around the fire, close enough to be able to dry but far enough away to stop them from catching fire. He then knelt by her and took her shoes and socks off for her.

"What are you doing?"

"They're wet," Sora explained. "And you know as well as I do that wearing wet clothes in freezing temperatures is a bad idea. It'll just get you sick." He set her shoes and socks by his before moving across the tent and opening the front a little more.

"Uh, isn't the point of being here to keep us warm?"

"Warm, yes, but I wasn't thinking," he said with a guilty smile. "We'll probably die from smoke inhalation if we don't have it open. As it is, we might be inhaling more than we should." He moved back beside her and sat down, pulling her onto his lap.

"What do you think happened?" Kairi asked him as she rested her forehead against his neck.

"Remember how we said that it was possible that someone took the life away from the plants in Dwarf Woodland and used it for themselves? Well, maybe different people with different powers affect nature differently."

"Someone who controls vegetation sucks energy out of the plants around them, someone who can control snow or ice freezes a place," she suggested.

"Yeah," Sora said with a nod. "We'll go look for Tarzan tomorrow, or Jane, or some of the gorillas. Just to see if anyone is still here. We need to get some sleep though."

Kairi nodded her head and curled up to him a little more, shivering as her clothes, wet from when she had fallen into the snow, clung to her body. Sora held her shivering frame close, and bit his lip hesitantly as he felt her wet dress. There was no way he was going to get through the conversation that he needed to have with her without getting some sort of slap or jab.

"Kairi," he said, blushing brilliant, "I know this is gonna sound really bad, but you have to take off your dress."

Her head shot off of his shoulder, and she started staring at him with wide eyes. Kairi blinked, as is trying to process what he had said.

"I didn't mean—well—you see, it's wet, and if you keep in on you'll just stay cold and get sick," he stammered, highly embarrassed. "Besides, it'll be just like when you wear a bikini."

This time Kairi blushed a bit and said, in a very small voice, "Not exactly."

His eyebrows rose in confusion as he eyed her burning cheeks. He put a hand on her cheek, feeling the hot skin through his glove as he asked, "How's it different?"

"It's—uh—I never ever thought I'd be having this conversation with you," she muttered before a thoughtful look appeared on her face. "Okay, that's a lie, I just didn't think I'd have to discuss my choice of underwear in this situation. See, they're a bit…er…smaller…"

Sora's face burned a deep shade of red as he stuttered before sitting up and waving his arm around, "I swear! I won't look or anything! I mean I'll—I'll…" He looked around the cold tent and saw a thin piece of the same material that made the tent. It didn't look like it would keep her very warm though. He wracked his brain as he tried to think of a solution to spare his girlfriend her dignity, but keep her warm. Not that she should feel embarrassed around him or anything. It wasn't like he didn't want to see her—

'_You're digging your own mental hole,'_ Roxas pointed out, amusement lacing his voice.

'Shut up. Might as well be Naminé parading around in pretty much nothing,' Sora mentally snapped at him. He moved and quickly grabbed the thing material and held it out to Kairi sheepishly.

She looked at the material, then back at him, and started laughing. She patted his cheek and said, "It's okay. I know you didn't mean to sound perverted or anything. You're right anyways." Before he could say anything else, she quickly unzipped her dress and Sora turned around to face away from her, blushing brilliantly.

'_Ummm, you're girlfriend, the closets thing to a physical version of my girlfriend I might add, is stripping, and you're not watching?' _Roxas asked him.

"Not everyone's a pervert like you, Roxas!" Sora said loudly before he realized that he had said that out loud. He heard Kairi laugh from behind him, sounding torn between amused and embarrassed. He had a feeling that Kairi was amused and Naminé was the embarrassed one. "Sorry."

"It's okay," he heard Kairi say as she came up behind him and grabbed his arm. He blushed when he felt her curl up against him, his hands brushing the bare skin of her back. He moved so that he was turned away from her, but she was still trying to hug him. Needless to say, it was uncomfortable.

Suddenly Kairi burst into a fit of giggles, Sora turned around and stared at her oddly, keeping his eyes focused on her face. It was a harder task then he originally thought it would be. She tried to calm herself down for a moment, only to let out a snort of laughter.

"What?" he asked, amusement lacing his voice at the rather unladylike sound she made.

She giggled and said, "You shouldn't wear wet clothes."

He eyed her for a moment before saying, "Thank you, Captain Obvious."

She slapped his arm lightly before saying, "Your shirt and shorts are wet. Fair is fair. I stripped, now you have to too."

Sora blushed and stuttered, and she laughed at him. After a bit of teasing (from Kairi and Roxas) and whining (from Sora and, to an extent, also Roxas), the two were curled up under the thin material. Sora wasn't sure if it was the heat from their embarrassed blushes or something else (which Roxas teased that it definitely was), but he felt like, even in the cold, that it was the warmest he had ever been. He just pictured it in his head like they were lying on the beach of Destiny Islands in their swimsuits.

He let out a light hum as the warmth flooded over his body and he hugged her a little bit tighter to his. "We'll keep each other warm. Or we'll just fall asleep and won't wake up."

"Optimistic of you," she joked and gave him a small peck on the cheek before snuggling up to him. "G'night Sora."

"Night Iri," he replied in a tired tone and was asleep almost instantly.

She shook her head, amazed that he could simply fall asleep so quickly even in an unfamiliar environment. He was probably used to it though.

"I love you," she whispered to him, even though she knew for a fact that he was completely unconscious and not just faking it. There was no secret whisper back to her, but she could live without that for now. It was early in their relationship, so she didn't expect him to say that to her face, just like she wouldn't say it to him when he was conscious or coherent. Besides, it didn't really matter; she could feel it, even if he didn't say it.

**VVVVVVVVVVV**

Sora was standing at the edge of the beach, staring out at the clear water while blocking the strong sunlight from his eyes. He could hear someone treading through the water, and déjà vu passed through him. He had had this dream before.

He looked up, fully expecting to see Riku staring at the ocean with a massive wave about to swallow him, but instead he saw a girl. Her back was facing him, so he couldn't see her features. All he could see was her black hair blowing in the wind. She started to turn to face him, when the image quickly changed.

He watched as Roxas made his way towards him, but as he got closer Sora noticed that something was off. He squinted a bit before taking a few steps into the water. That wasn't Roxas.

The Roxas-look-a-like held out his hand towards Sora and mouthed his name. Sora hesitated before taking a few steps towards him, but just as he was about to grab his hand, he felt the ground jerk roughly underneath him. Sora blinked, and as he did, the vibrant colors of the island faded away so that only darkness surrounded him. He looked back towards the young man had been, but he wasn't there anymore.

Instead, there was a young woman, slightly older than the boy, staring at Sora from across the darkness. Her blue hair whipped around her violently as she tried to call out to him, but he couldn't hear her, nor could he try to guess what she was saying. She was too far away.

She suddenly turned around to face something, and a tall figure approached her. Sora watched her fade away as this tall young man took her place, gazing at Sora. He looked up, and Sora followed his gaze.

He let out a gasp as Kingdom Hearts appeared above him, glowing a vibrant blue. Sora went to look back at the young man, but instead he found himself falling. He could still see Kingdom Hearts above him, and flashes of images started playing out in front of him of things he had never seen before, people he was sure that he had never met.

He let out a grunt as he slammed into something solid and Kingdom Hearts faded out of view. He let out a groan as a familiar voice called out, "Are you alright?"

The brunet tilted his head up and saw Roxas quickly making his way over towards him. With a second groan, Sora managed to roll over onto his hands and knees before pushing himself up.

Roxas reached his side and stared at him quizzically, a startled look on his face. From that look alone, Sora knew that his Nobody had seen the exact same thing he had.

"What just happened?" Sora asked.

"I don't know," Roxas answered honestly, a far-away look on his face. "But that guy, he looked exactly like me. He wasn't me though."

Sora nodded as he looked down at his mural. He frowned a bit when he look at it and said, "What the hell?"

"What?" Roxas asked, following his faze.

Sora knelt down and was picking at a crack in the platform. He managed to pull a piece of the glass away, only to see a different color under it.

"There's another one under mine," he said as he stood back up, unable to tear away anymore.

"I've never noticed that before," Roxas admitted. He frowned a bit and walked to the edge, looking down at the other platforms below. He looked back at Sora and said, "You might want to see this."

Sora rushed beside his Nobody and looked down. There were more platforms than before. Most of them were dull in color and it was almost impossible to see what was on them, while others seemed brightly lit. The startling thing was that he could see the remains of three shattered ones.

"What does it mean?" Sora asked.

"I wish I knew," Roxas said after a moment. He suddenly looked around and said, "I think we're waking up."

Sora wanted to ask how his Nobody knew, but he didn't get the chance as everything became black.

**VVVVVVVVVVV**

Sora shot up quickly, accidentally causing Kairi's head to slip from where it had been resting on his chest to hitting the hard earth below.

She rubbed her head and glared at him, about to say something before he quickly put a finger up to her lips. He breathed heavily, breathing in a little more smoke then was probably healthy, but he didn't pay attention to that. Instead, his eyes were focused on the outside of the tent, where a silhouette of some sort of animal could be seen lurking outside. The shape was blurred, so he couldn't see exactly what it was.

If that stupid jaguar was still hanging around, he swore that he was going to go ballistic. How many times did he have to beat away that thing last time?

He approached the edge of tent, forgetting that he was only in his boxers, and then he moved quickly. A sudden, loud cry of fear caused him to wince and stop. At least, he assumed it was fear, because it was one unholy sounding screech.

Blinking, he saw a gorilla jump away from him taking a few steps back and bearing its sharp canines. Sora didn't move, instead he kept staring at it oddly.

"You're the gorilla that kept bothering Donald, aren't you?" he asked slowly, lowering his Keyblade. He wasn't about to let it go though. He wasn't stupid; he had just frightened this creature badly and there was a chance that it could attack him.

The gorilla seemed to sense that Sora wasn't about to attack, because it seemed to become less tense, but at the same time, it looked wary.

"Sora, what's—" Kairi cut herself off as she rushed out of the tent and saw the ape. She took a step back, wincing as her feet pressed against the snow. Apparently she had forgotten what little clothing she was wearing too. The gorilla seemed to become curious as she appeared, and it's tension was completely gone. Seeing this, Sora's Keyblade vanished, and instead he wrapped his arm protectively around Kairi's waist, just in case. It was only when his skin met her own that he looked down with confusion, and blushed bright red.

Sora nudged Kairi to the tent, clearing his throat and said, "You're going to freeze."

"So are you," she muttered, her eyes never leaving the creatures'. In reality, she was just trying to hide the vivid blush on her face from her boyfriend. "Come on."

They moved back into the tent and went to put their dry clothes back on. As Sora was crouching down to make sure that the last of the fire was indeed out, the gorilla wandered in and over to him. It stared at him curiously before flicking his hair with interest, watching it bounce.

Kairi giggled at this, and toppled sideways from laughter as the gorilla continued to do the same action over and over again.

Suddenly, a loud yell echoed from outside. All of them jumped before the gorilla ran towards the edge of the tent and let out a loud call back.

Sora's memory kicked into gear. He knew exactly where he had heard that sound before.

"Tarzan?" he asked the gorilla, hoping that it would understand. Jane had explained last time that they seemed to be able to understand some of what they were told in English.

The gorilla visibly reacted, turning to stare at Sora for a moment. It then yelled outside of the tent and, a few seconds later, a hunched- over man walked in. He stared at them both as he walked just like the gorilla.

"Tarzan!" Sora said to him, a large smile growing on face. "It's been a while."

The ape-like man seemed to recognize Sora well enough. He curiously glanced at Kairi though and asked, "Friend?"

"Huh?" Sora looked at Kairi and smiled as it occurred to him what Tarzan is referring to. He laughed a bit and says, "Yeah, she was one of the friends I was looking for."

He eyed his old friend, taking in the fact that, as he walked hunched over, that he looks more like a gorilla than ever, bunched in a dark fabric that had been crudely sewing together.

Tarzan stares at them for a moment before he said, "Come. Cold here."

"You know someplace warmer?"

Tarzan nods his head, and it only occurs to Sora as they were walking behind Tarzan and Terk (the gorilla's name, Tarzan explains) that his English, while not the best by far, had improved greatly.

**VVVVVVVVVVV**

Jane greeted Sora with a hug, and she smiled warmly at Kairi as they were introduced. The gorillas moved into the caves hidden behind the large waterfalls that were frozen solid, keeping out the bitter wind. The woman quickly decided that they didn't nearly have enough on to keep them warm (which was completely true), so she went through the bundle of clothes and blankets that she made from the ones she and her father had brought with them. She found the warmest blanket she could, and giggled when Sora insisted that they only needed one to share.

"What happened to this place?" Sora asked as he and Kairi were presented with a small ration of food.

"Heartless," Tarzan answered, "shadowed figure."

"Yes," Jane agreed, "I didn't get a good look at who it was, but I could tell it was male and had a human shape at least. It was like he caused it to snow. We've been having terrible storms ever since."

Kairi suddenly jerked beside Sora and asked, "Did they take any children?"

"Children?" Jane asked thoughtfully before looking at Tarzan.

"He try," Tarzan said. "We force him away. He come back. We do again."

"Did he come back since then?" Sora asked.

"No." It was a simple answer, but Sora could practically feel the pride behind it. Tarzan had protected his home, and he had driven out the enemy for the most part.

"Will you be staying long?" Jane questioned as she moved around the cave, looking for something.

"There's not that much we can do here," Sora replied honestly. "I mean, if that guy was still here, we could get rid of him, but to change back the weather…"

"No, I suppose not," she said with a nod. "You are both freezing though, so you had better stay just to get a little warmed up."

Sora nodded, then frowned as he asked, "Was the Keyhole opened again?"

"The Key—no, I don't think so," she replied thoughtfully. "You could check though. I don't think anyone has been up there recently." She cast a weary eye at Turk, who was peering into the room curiously. "At least no one who speaks English has been there."

There was a calm silence afterwards, until Kairi asked, "Why would they be trying to take children?"

Sora and Jane (Tarzan and Turk had left without a word of English earlier) glanced at her before Sora answered, "I don't know."

"Well," Jane said. "Sora, you said that Heartless are the darkness of a person's heart, right?"

"Yeah, that's right."

"So, maybe they want the opposite of that?"

Sora was about to ask if a Nobody counted, but then he stopped as he realized that a Nobody wasn't really the opposite of a Heartless. "You mean a person with no darkness in them?"

"How much darkness is a child truly born with? Are humans born evil? Or is it developed over time?" Jane pondered. "There are many universities out there who ask this question, many philosophers, you know."

Sora looked at Kairi and said, "I guess that's true."

Kairi could feel his eyes on her, and she knew that he was worried. If they wanted a person with a pure heart, a child wasn't the only place they could find it. Kairi, for her part, was worried about Sora too. He had such little darkness in him that he could easily be a target as well.

They all suddenly heard a commotion coming from outside of the small cave they were in. Jane let out a sigh and said, "I hope that's not my father wrestling with a gorilla again. He's too old for that." Without a glance back at the two teenagers she swiftly walked out of the cave.

The second Jane was gone, Kairi looked at Sora and asked, "Do you think those Heartless attacked the islands for the children? Or for us?"

Sora frowned at her question and tried to avoid her eyes. She managed to move to force him to look directly at her, and he finally said, "I don't think…it doesn't seem like quite the same thing that happened to the islands has happened anywhere else and…the Heartless just attacked everyone."

She nodded her head and said, "So they were after us."

Sora rested his cheek on the top of her head, pulling her as close as he could. "I think so." He could feel her tears on his neck, but he didn't try to stop her from crying. He just held her. They sat in silence for a moment until they heard frantic footsteps rushing towards them.

Kairi wiped away her tears as Jane came into the room breathing heavily. She looked at them and said, "There are Heartless by the Keyhole. They're trying to unlock it I think."

Both of them shot to their feet and rushed down the narrow passage. Sora led Kairi around the thin ledges and up towards the Keyhole. When they reached the scene, they saw Tarzan fighting off the creatures with and a large red elephant (who looked more afraid than anything).

Sora summoned his Keyblade and asked, "You ready?"

Kairi nodded as she summoned Oathkeeper and said, "Lets go."

The two both rushed into the battle, slaying the unsuspecting Heartless. Most of them were just shadows, Sora noticed, but there were a lot of them. That was okay though, because it was better than the—

He slipped as something threw a banana at him before something pounced on him. He used his Keyblade to throw it off of him before he stabbed through it and watched as it faded away. God he hated Bouncywilds, but they were the least of his problems. If they were here then that meant that Powerwilds were most likely around the area somewhere.

He heard a sudden shriek of pain, and felt like his heart plunged into his stomach. He swung his Keyblade around, slashing through the Shadows around him, searching for Kairi with a panicked expression.

He finally found her, and he found the Powerwilds in the process. She was facing off against three of them, but one of them had managed to slash at her left arm, leaving behind a nasty set of gashes.

Anger passed through him as he shot forward, slamming his Keyblade into the one that had blood on it's claws. They usually took a few hits to beat, but Kairi seemed to have worn it down enough so that Sora defeated it instantaneously. He managed to throw the stronger two away and quickly moved over to Kairi, worry passing over his features.

"I'll be fine for now," she insisted. "Don't use cure and waste the magic."

Sora was about to protest when Tarzan landed beside them and said, "Too many."

"He's right," Kairi agreed. "There's too many in this one little spot."

Sora nodded thoughtfully before his eyes suddenly turned to Kairi again and said, "We can get rid of them, we just need to work together."

Kairi stared at him for a moment before nodding her head and grasping his left hand with her own so that they were facing opposite directions. Both of them concentrated, letting their mingling light travel to their Keyblades. Kairi swung hers in one direction, Sora in the other, and they both called out, "Heart!"

It was a powerful blast of while light, and it destroyed all of the Heartless around them. Still, both Sora and Kairi held their Keyblades ready for a moment before letting them vanish.

Sora caught Kairi as she swayed a bit and ended up falling over. She was still conscious, but she wasn't used to having to use so much magic in one go. Her specialty seemed to be aerobatics due to how flexible and small she was, and while Sora was sure it would come in handy later, he knew he needed to help her work up her strength more.

Looking at the Keyhole, he made sure it was still sealed before reaching down under her legs and scooping her into his arms. Looking at Tarzan, he said, "They shouldn't come back, but if they do, give them hell."

Tarzan seemed to understand and he said, "You rest. You tired."

Though he was about to protest, Sora stopped. As much as he wanted to get to the next world, he knew that both of them needed rest. They hadn't slept for long the previous night, and although Sora would like to say he was fine despite the powerful attack that they had just used, he could feel it draining his energy. It had been over six months since he had needed to use such powerful magic, and magic was one of those things that needed to be practiced frequently.

"Alright," he said to Tarzan. Sora followed him back down the slanted hills. Jane rushed over to them with a worried look passing over her face when she saw Kairi's arm.

Sora sat down with her on the floor by the blanket. He was about to cure it, but Kairi put her hand on his cheek and stopped him.

"You're tired," she muttered. "Don't waste the magic."

"It's never a waste," he replied stubbornly. He rested his hand on her arm and muttered, "Curaga." The wound sealed itself, but it left a scar on her smooth skin. The spell, on top of the magic he used earlier, seemed to drain him. He leaned against the cold wall of the cave and held her close as his eyes slipped close. Kairi breathed in a small sigh of relief as the pain left her arm, moving closer to his warmth. It may have been warmer than outside, but in her short dress, it was still chilly. She let his exhaustion take over after a few moments at Jane's insistence that she could sleep. A part of her was glad that there was an adult around to take charge.

Jane smiled at the two and moved them so that they were lying down together instead of slumped against a wall, and she wrapped two blankets around them securely. She didn't know what they had to go through, but the least she could do was let them sleep peacefully, if only for one night.

**Jiminy's Journal**

**Tarzan** – A man who was found and raised by apes as only a young child. He can speak fluently to them and tends to act more like them than a human at the best of times. He is learning English slowly. He fights for his friends and is known as the King of the Apes. He first appeared in Tarzan (1999)

**Jane** – A researcher who came to study apes. She ended up meeting Tarzan and chose to stay with him instead of returning home. She's intelligent and doesn't mind taking a few risks, although she can be a bit naïve at times. She first appeared in Tarzan (1999)

**Terk** – Tarzan's lifelong friend, she was one of the few who were truly his friend when he was younger. She's prone to dramatics and has a bit of a motherly streak to her where her friend's concerned. She first appeared in Tarzan (1999).

**Deep Jungle** – A backwater world that consists of large jungles with many dangerous creatures roaming it. It was frozen from a dark spell.

**Author's Note**

Second shameless promotion! On my deviant art account (click on any of the links in my profile) check out the Sora and Kairi I made in photoshop. Yes, for the record, I did have to photoshop different pieces from different poses together to make them, Sora moreso than Kairi. I'm working on Roxas, Namine, Xion and Riku too.

Thank you to those who reviewed. You guys are awesome!

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	14. In The Dark Of The Night

**Shadows of Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Thirteen – In the Dark of the Nigh**t**_

Despite her dark appearance, she had never liked black all that much. It was suffocating, with nothing but the unknown within it. Maybe that was the point though. She wasn't a being of light, nor was she anything good, that much was obvious. However, she wasn't dark and she wasn't a hundred percent evil, maybe about ninety-nine percent, but not one hundred. It was easy to fight enemies that were evil and from the dark. There were no questions about it, and no second guesses. When the enemy wasn't completely dark though, that was when the lines of what was right and wrong became blurred.

Her eyes were closed as she tried to concentrate to find them. It had been a mistake, confronting Roxas so early on. She hadn't been able to track their unique signature since.

Eyes sliding open, Crysita crossed her arms in front of her as she looked out of the large window in front of her. She had tried to find them, she really did, but any time she got close to finding the Keyblade Master or the Princess of Heart (for she knew that they would be together), something blocked her off. She thought, for a moment, that it might have been Roxas blocking her from entering the Station of Awakening and covering it with enough darkness so that the Keyblade Bearer didn't recognize where he was, but that wasn't possible. Roxas wouldn't have known how to stop her.

She frowned a bit. It was possible, just maybe, that there was a third person affecting her. A person blocking her, wanting to stop the master plan.

'_Now Crysita,'_ a voice echoed from her memory, _'You know the role you have to fulfill. I expect you to do it without question.'_

'_Yes,'_ she had said, _'I understand that, but I can do so much more to help.'_

'_You could. You are powerful. All the pieces have been put into place though. Everything will make sense in the end.' _

Those instructions were so simple, yet so complicated. She knew her place, and she knew what she had to do. It was frustrating, because she had the ability to do so much more than she was instructed to.

For now though, she would stay in line. If an opportunity presented itself though, she would take it. She was obedient and loyal, but at the same time, she was also ambitious.

Crysita fiddled with the clasp on one of her gloves, turning it into a sparkling crystal unconsciously. She would do what she had to do to make sure everything went according to plan.

Moving out of the room, she walked down the dim halls swiftly, not the least bit bothered that most of it was a only rocky cavern.

She moved down a narrow passage way and pushed open a door. That was when the sobs and cries reached her ears. The cries for their mothers, for their fathers, and for help landed on uncaring ears as she walked through the room. Crysita had never cared for children.

"How many?" she asked Sarlio as she found him with a list in his hand.

"Not nearly enough," he replied simply, "we need more."

"I was under the impression that everyone only required a few from time to time," Crysita said thoughtfully.

"We do," Sarlio replied, "but keeping ahead of the Keyblade Bearers will probably require even more, let alone for when we fight them. You remember why we need to do this, right?"

"Oh I'm well aware of what we're doing sweetheart," she said before taking a step forward. "I'm the one who brought you in on this, or do you not remember that?"

His silver eyes glanced at her brown ones before he said, "It'll all be done. Don't worry. No one else knows though, right?"

"No," she answered before turning to leave the room. She didn't want to deal with the sobbing children. She left that duty to the others.

As she moved back to her room, she heard the distinct slaps of feet meeting the floor in a hurry. She turned around, staring at the corner as Lilanti appeared around corner. She brushed her golden-blonde hair away from her violet eyes as she approached, and Crysita knew that the other girl had important news. The grin on the blonde's face was far too cocky for anything else.

"So," Lilanti said, "I discovered something today while I was out fixing Jorix's mistake in Dwarf Woodland. I don't think here is a good place to talk about it though."

Understanding, Crysita motioned for Lilanti to follow her down the hall. The two moved swiftly, neither speaking, until they reached Crysita's room. She closed the door tightly before asking, "Well?"

"I stumbled across two interesting figures there, two people that didn't belong. What surprised me more than anything though, was the fact that they both had Keyblades."

"They?" Crysita asked. This was almost too good to hope for. "Were they a boy with spiky brown hair and a redheaded girl?"

"Yeah, that's right," the blonde agreed. "I'm assuming they're important."

"More than you know," she muttered before straightening up a bit. "You just rediscovered the Keyblade Master and the Princess of Heart that I lost track of."

Lilanti didn't say a word about this, but her smug grin annoyed Crysita. The girl, while her ally, annoyed her to no end and was her biggest challenge with keeping everything in order.

"Are they still there?" Crysita asked after a moment of silence.

"No. They sealed the Keyhole and left."

Crysita nodded and asked, "Did you put a tracker on them?"

"Unfortunately, they got away before I could. I do know that they're traveling through corridors of darkness though."

Folding her arms across her chest, she said, "Well, that's a good thing. Both of them have a lot of light, and together they'll stand out like a lighthouse in the dark. We just have to wait for them to jump worlds again, and once they do we can find them again. Good job."

Lilanti nodded and asked, "So, everything's going to plan so far?"

"Everything."

"Right, and no one else knows about this, right?"

Crysita turned away from her, and nodded her head slowly. "No one."

She may have not been completely dark or one hundred percent evil, but one thing Crysita was, was a liar.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

Riku wished that he had first seen Disney Castle under better circumstances. It was a magnificent place, and he was sure that the outside town was probably just as interesting. He would have loved to explore such a peaceful world, and he was sure that Sora and Kairi would have enjoyed it as well.

Sora had told him about Disney before. He described it as a calming and comforting place. It was like a safe haven away from the dark where he could be safe forever. While he did agree with Sora that it was certainly calming and comforting there, he couldn't help but feel a little weighed down. It was like there was a pressure building within his heart. It wasn't a painful feeling, but it did leave him a bit winded at times.

It was Queen Minnie who suggested the Cornerstone of Light. Riku, while not evil, still had more darkness than the average person did. It didn't keep him away from the castle like it did real darkness, but it did bother him more.

Others, like Sora, Kairi, King Mickey and Minnie, felt extremely comforted by the Cornerstone of Light because of how much light they had in them. It was like an extra security blanket. They were much more aware of the warmth produced by the light.

No one had heard anything about Sora or Kairi in the past week. There wasn't any news of any overly large Heartless attacks since Destiny Islands, but something didn't feel right. Riku knew something terrible was happening to the worlds, but whatever it was, it wasn't necessarily darkness doing it. There was something else in the works, something that twisted natural magic so that they couldn't pinpoint the differences until they were too late.

He heard the clanking of metal behind him, and turned around, his silver hair moving in the soft breeze. His calculating green eyes took in the tall dog approaching him, decked out in armor, followed by a slightly smaller creature that looked almost identical to him.

"This here is Maxie," Goofy said to Riku as he got close enough. "He's my son and he's gonna be helping us."

"He's coming?" Riku asked.

Max opened his mouth to speak but Goofy cut in, saying, "No, Maxie's gonna stay here and do commutation."

"Communication, dad," he said with a sigh before turning to Riku. "You can call me Max." He rolled his eyes at his father.

Riku grinned a bit, recognizing the teen's annoyance with his parent. It was something he felt towards his own father all of the time. His grin faded as he asked, "Are Mickey and Donald coming?"

"Yeah," Goofy answered, "just taking care of some last minute things. Now Maxie, you're in charge of keeping in touch with the worlds. If you hear anything 'bout Sora or Kairi, you call us. Or anything bout them there Heartless too."

"I know dad," Max insisted, "we've gone over this a billion times."

"Just making sure."

"Hey, if Huey, Dewey and Louie can run a business, I can handle a computer," Max said with a shrug. It was a legitimate point, because Scrooge had those three running businesses for years.

They all looked around as they heard a loud crash. Donald pulled himself off of the ground and turned around, yelling at his three nephews for leaving their stuff around. Max wasn't going to point out that it was his skateboard. He would just have to make it up to the ducks later. There were some things in life no one wanted to deal with, and a raging Donald Duck was one of them. Daisy was left trying to calm him down, but her temper was just as short. Riku came to appreciate the live comedy during his short stay at the castle.

King Mickey and Queen Minnie appeared out of a different door, most likely haven seen Donald fall and decided to avoid him. Naturally, the only ones that knew almost as much about the castle as Mickey were Chip and Dale, because they were so small that they could fit anywhere. Aside from that, no one knew every nook and cranny of the castle like Mickey Mouse did.

Mickey shook his head as he looked back at Donald before glancing at Riku. "We don't know where Sora and Kairi are, but the best we can do is search for them. Riku, you know as well as I do that that has to come second though."

Riku nodded slowly, although he didn't want to believe it. He knew that they had to stop the darkness from spreading more than it already was. He knew Sora and Kairi were in danger (they all agreed that the Heartless were probably sent to Destiny Islands after the two of them), but he also knew that one of the best ways to help them was to get rid of the darkness. Still, if they found them in the mean time, that was all the better.

Mickey also wanted to try and locate all of the different Keyblade Wielders. Not necessarily to take them from their homes yet, but he at least wanted to know who they all were. If they could keep track of how many were appearing, then maybe they could try to predict what was going to happen next.

"Riku," Mickey asked suddenly as they walked down into the Gummi Ship hanger. "Do you happen to have a picture of Roxas or Naminé?"

"No," he replied, startled by the question. "No I don't. Why?"

Mickey looked a little hesitant, so Minnie put a hand on his shoulder and said, "He wanted it just in case they come here so that Daisy and I would know who they are. Can you describe them, then?"

"Yeah. Roxas, he's almost identical to Sora, but he has blond hair that's spiked a little differently. He had a checkered wristband and an X pendant on the zipper of his shirt. Naminé, likewise, looks exactly like Kairi, but she's blonde as well. Her hair's a little lighter than Roxas'. She would probably be wearing a white dress with blue sandals. Why would you need to know what they look like though? They're inside of Sora and Kairi."

Minnie looked down and Mickey said, "Just in case we find Roxas and Naminé, but not Sora and Kairi."

Riku froze as he realized what Mickey was saying. It had honestly never occurred to him that there was a possibility that Sora and Kairi would have lost their hearts after falling through the portal. If they had landed in a place with a lot of Heartless and were already unconscious—

He shuddered at the thought. Kairi, she wouldn't have a Heartless, so she would just be laying on the ground, an empty body left to the elements. Sora, he would become a small, rather docile Heartless that would probably stay by her side, trying to protect her even if he didn't know why.

"I never thought about that," Riku said honestly. "If they are—"

"Where are we heading first?" Donald asked, changing the subject.

"Agrabah," Mickey explained. "There has been some trouble there and while I know Aladdin and Genie could probably handle it, the darkness in that world seems to be escalating."

"Genie I get, but how could Aladdin handle it?" Riku asked.

"He has a Keyblade," Mickey explained. "Wishing Lamp."

"Didn't Sora have that Keychain with him?" Riku wondered, remembering Sora's wide variety of keychains that he had stored carefully in a box in his room.

"He did at one point of time. I'm willing to bet that didn't have it with him when the islands were attacked though. I don't know how Aladdin got it, and he doesn't know either. He did mention having a dream with Sora in it though, and he said Sora gave him the Keyblade. At the time, he didn't actually have a Keyblade yet. Genie popped in and told us about it later, after Destiny Islands was attacked."

"Is that possible?" Riku asked slowly, focusing on the part about Aladdin having a dream where Sora gave him a Keyblade. "Cause Sora didn't mention anything."

"Maybe something chose Sora's form because Aladdin was familiar with him in association to the Keyblade, or maybe Sora did it subconsciously, but something gave him that Keyblade for a reason. Besides, the only way to get a Keyblade is through some sort of ritual except in the rare case like Sora and myself. I don't know if it has to be done physically or if it could be preformed in a dream, but its the best guess we've got."

Riku stared at the gummi ship in thought as Donald and Goofy boarded it after wishing everyone goodbye. He had never had any dream, but maybe he just didn't remember it. Maybe someone else gave him his Keyblade, and not Sora. Suddenly, an odd thought came to his head: Mickey had said that he and Sora were the odd ones, meaning that Riku and even Kairi had gone through this ritual before. That really didn't make sense though, because he didn't remember it. For a moment, he thought he saw a tall man kneeling in front of him, holding out a Keyblade, but that quickly went away. Shaking his head, he walked up the ramp and into the ship. There would be plenty of time to think about that on the way to Agrabah, but for now, he would let it go.

Mickey watched Riku with knowing eyes. The Mouse knew a lot more than he let on. More than Riku, or even Sora and Kairi, were ready to know yet.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

Crysita, as mentioned before, was ambitious. While she was loyal and she knew the plan down to a T, she also knew when opportunity presented itself to her. She kept a blank expression on her face so that no one else could see how excited she really was.

The two that she needed were already presented to her. They were both on their own, and they were both walking into her territory, barely aware of exactly how much danger they were wandering into. They had very little knowledge of the enemy they faced, and she wanted to keep it that was.

These two were, without a doubt, deeply in love. The scene that Lilanti had described between the two was sickeningly sweet, and she had been told that the easiest way to manipulate the Keyblade Master was through the girl that he cherished. It was very easy to manipulate a person, when their greatest weakness was another person.

She had been told some very interesting information on both Sora Hikari and Kairi Kokoro. Sora, although he had barely any darkness in his heart, he had an anti-form that was extremely vicious and wild. It would attack anyone, friend or foe, until they were all destroyed. It was curious, because as she understood, his drive forms let him use different styles of fighting from the one he was naturally comfortable with. These forms threatened Crysita a bit, because it made him unpredictable unless someone could memorize what each form meant, but he if got strong enough there was a chance that there would be no actual change in his appearance. The anti-form, she knew, was just like these other forms, not him turning into another type of Heartless. It wasn't a being that could communicate with Sora like Roxas could, it was just him wild with darkness for a few moments. She needed to be cautious with how she handled the Princess, because Crysita had a feeling that the Heartless-like form would appear if anything really bad happened.

His Nobody, Roxas, was a member of Organization XIII who turned on them. That had interested her even more than the anti-form had. She wondered if he remember exactly what had happened that forced him to leave the Organization in the first place. Probably not. From what she gathered, that memory witch, Naminé, had done a lot of damage on both parts of Sora.

Then there was Kairi, the Princess of Heart you wanted to play knight. She was a fighter, yes, but odds were that she would never amount to quite the same status as Sora as a Keyblade Bearer. Still, she had a powerful, pure heart, and on top of that, if she could get her, Sora was be like play-doh in her hands.

Naminé was a factor Crysita was a little worried about to be honest, more so than even Kairi herself, or Roxas for that matter. She had a feeling that the blonde Nobody knew more than she let on about everything. The girl had been playing with Sora and Roxas' memories for a year! She must have seen some thing that maybe they didn't event remember. Crysita had heard that Naminé's powers were limited to controlling them and those they were connected to, but if that was wrong, she really didn't want to get on the wrong side of the blonde.

All the factors aside, the thought of two people with extremely strong hearts with very little or no light in them made Crysita grin. Such a thing was exactly what she needed, and that was why there was so many children locked in the cages down in the lower levels of the sculpted caves. Sure, the children had a different purpose from what Sora and Kairi did, but that didn't really matter.

She was walked up the steep slant that led from a secret door to the top of the mountains that they had made their base in secret. She folded her arms across her chest, looking up at the clouded skies. She looked out into the distance, focusing on a spot kilometers away from where she was. To most, it would have just looked like the dead land stretched on for ages, but she knew where to look to see the difference. If a person knew where to look and what to look for, they could see a faint translucent sphere dome, protecting what was inside of it. It was fairly far away and hard to see, but she knew it was there.

"No entry way in here," she muttered with a shake of her head. If only she could get the Keyblade Master and the Princess of Heart. It would have made her job so much easier. She wasn't stupid though. She knew that they would be extremely hard to capture and manipulate. What would have made it even easier than getting Sora and Kairi to do what she needed was if there was a child with an incredibly strong heart with no darkness. A Keyblade Master and a Princess or Prince of Heart mixed into one.

Crysita sighed, knowing that the only way she was going to get something like that was if the Keyblade Master and the Princess procreated. It was a tease of a dream for the moment, and she didn't have time to wait until they actually had a child. Even if the girl got pregnant that night, putting the plan on hold for over nine extra months wouldn't do.

No, she wouldn't get too far ahead of herself. She knew the plan, and she would fulfill her part. The child wasn't important yet.

She suddenly heard static, and looked around in confusion. She was glad that no one was there to see her moment of stupidity as she realized that it was her communicator going off.

"What?" she asked into it. It was an old thing, but it worked and it was the best they could get on such short notice.

"Carverin here," came his scratchy voice. "We were trying to take some of the children in Atlantis, but someone with a Keyblade stopped us. We needed to leave. She even managed to knock Jorix unconscious."

"The Princess of Atlantis, maybe?" she asked.

"No," Carverin replied, "but she had green hair and brown eyes. It was weird, because she looked almost exactly like—"

"I know who it was," she snapped suddenly. "Don't worry about it. Go to another place. We'll deal with Atlantis later."

There was a pause before he said, "You're the boss."

She put the communicator back in her pocket and frowned. She shook her head and said, "I knew I should have kept you under better security, Midori."

**Jiminy's Journal**

**Crysita** – A cruel girl slightly older than Sora and his friends. She has purple hair and brown eyes. Not much is known about her past. Her weapon of choice is a staff made out of crystals. She can turn anything she wants into gemstones, even altering already existing ones. When she turns a victim into crystal, they can still feel any sort of pain she inflicts on them. She also seems to have the ability to enter minds and controlling darkness.

**Sarlio** – One of the people working with Crysita. He is very loyal and follows all of her plans without question, not realizing that she may be manipulating him. He can turn things into wood, and he enjoys destroying those things he changes. He uses a wooden club, which is a lot stronger than it sounds. He has moments where he becomes more insane than normal, and becomes even more vicious at this moments.

**Lilanti** – The only other girl of the group. She's a pretty girl who uses her looks to her advantage. She enjoys to toy with people's feelings, and she is overly confident in herself to the point where it's annoying. She is stubborn, often not caring about Crysita's orders. She can control any sort of vegetation minus the wood on trees. She carries a pair of metal sais with her that have vines woven around them.

**Carverin **– The silent one of their group. He's as cold and calculating, and is rather intelligent. He is the hardest of the group for Crysita to manipulate. He is often skeptical of her, but he keep silent about it. He has the ability to turn things into ice and snow, and he uses an axe made of pure ice.

**Queen Minnie Mouse** – She is the Queen of Disney and has been running the kingdom in her husband's absences. Minnie is a kind creature who is always willing to help others, and has a bit of a stubborn streak in her. She can use light magic and has helped Sora in the past with it. She first appeared in _Plane Crazy_ (1928).

**Max Goof** – Max is the teenage sun of Goofy. He often finds himself acting a lot like his father, much to his dismay. He admittedly finds Goofy a bit embarrassing (or a lot, depending on the issue). His best friend is Pete's son, PJ, but he is also friends with Duey, Dewey and Louie. He first appeared in _Fathers Are People_ (1951)

**Huey, Dewey, Louie Duck** – Nephew's of Donald Duck, they are always looking to make some money (much like their Uncle Scrooge) and often get on Donald's nerves. They first appeared in the _Donald Duck_ Sunday newspaper strip (1937). Their first animated appearance was in _Donald's Nephews_ (1938)

**Daisy Duck** – Daisy is the girlfriend to Donald Duck and best friends with Minnie Mouse, and is a countess of Disney. She is just as stubborn and hotheaded as Donald, but she tends to keep herself calm more often, except with him. She first appeared in _Mr. Duck Steps_ Out (1940)

Disney – A peaceful world ruled by Mickey and Minnie. The castle itself was built by a man named Walt who was the original ruler. The cornerstone of light protects this world from the darkness. Key characters from this world are Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy Goof and Minnie Mouse.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

**IMPORTANT NOTES:  
**

Why did I up the rating to M? Looking through the original, I came to a conclusion. I implied that Crysita, Lilanti, Jorix, Carverin and Sarlio were pretty terrible to deal with, but I never really demonstrated it. That's all changing here. I guarantee that there is one of them that you will absolutely despise by the end of this, but the others are no better. I was rewriting some parts when I realized just how tame I was making them as opposed to what I wanted, so I decided to change that so I had to up the rating with it. You'll see why. I AM NOT WRITING LEMONS THOUGH. If I wanted to do that, I'd write and post them to a website where you are technically allowed to do so.

Who is girl with black hair mentioned in Sora's dream...well keep in mind that this is a rewrite of the original, which was written before we even knew who the fourteenth member of Organization XIII was. When I wrote it we didn't even know what her face looked like even though we knew it was a girl. As such Xion was not written into the story at all because she didn't really exist then to the public eye. I know we know who is she now, and I personally like her more than I like either Kairi or Namine (Aqua still pwns all though) but I'm not changing this so much as to add her in when she wasn't in the original. But—well...I'll just got with 'but' for now and leave you wondering.

Lots of love!

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	15. Listen With Your Heart

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Fourteen – Listen With Your Heart_

The sky was dark, and the rain was pouring down heavily, soaking everything in its path. It was bitterly cold to the touch, more so than any amount of snow could be, and it stuck to him, chilling him to the bone.

He felt like he was falling but staying still at the same time, lost somewhere between the darkness and the light. There was no up, there was no down, and forward and backwards didn't exist. There was nothing but the icy rain.

Suddenly, his eyes snapped open, revealing his cerulean irises. He could hear something, in the distance. It sounded like the waves at Destiny Islands, but not the calm, soothing ones that he so enjoyed. No, these sound like the large, vicious waves that attacked the islands during the stormy season.

The rain picked up, and soon it started to flood the area he was in. It rose swiftly, passing his knees and making its way up to his chest before going over his head. He was yanked downward, spiraling down into the darkness. It was an odd feeling, because it didn't feel like water was swallowing him. Instead, it felt like he was tumbling down through the air, destined to meet whatever he was falling towards with a chaotic greeting.

Everything stopped suddenly, but he didn't get the vicious jerking feeling in his stomach that would usually accompany a sudden stop. Instead, he felt a small hand grasp onto his wrist tightly, and it simply stopped him.

Sora was pulled backwards, and suddenly the icy rain was gone, replaced with the feeling of the warm sun. He opened his eyes again, not sure of exactly when he closed them. Looking around, he saw that he was on a beach, but it wasn't Destiny Islands. Moving to his feet, he looked around and recognized the sky as he did. These were the beaches at the end of Twilight Town.

He turned around, suddenly remembering that a person had stopped him from falling. He could see a feminine figure in the distance, looking away from him. He got close enough to distinguish that she was the same black haired girl that he has seen before. She turned to face him, but against the harsh sunlight, he couldn't see all of her features.

She was sad. He could feel it. He approached her, wanting to thank her for saving him and to ask what was wrong, but for every step he took forward, he was pulled two steps back.

She was frowning, he could see that as she turned to face the ocean. For a moment, Sora saw a flash of green and then purple, but then she was gone. Instead, Roxas was standing before him, in the same position, looking sadly out over the waves. Sora tried to call out to him, but Roxas made no movement that he could hear his other. Instead, the blond just reached into his pocket and pulled out a lone seashell, staring at it sadly before letting it fall to the ground.

Sora groaned as he was thrown backwards roughly, his feet leaving the white sand before crashing into white marble floor. There had been another scene change, and now he was in a solid white room with pictures plastered all over the walls.

Once again, he pushed himself to his feet and looked around. Naminé was sitting at the end of the table, her wide variety of pencil crayons splayed out in front of her. She was staring at a picture in her sketchbook with confusion.

Looking up as he moved, she eyed Sora for a moment before looking at her book again. She picked it up, meeting him half way across the room and held it out for him to see.

There were three people on the page: the boy who looked like Roxas, the girl with blue hair and the boy with brown hair. Sora stared at them with confusion before looking up at Naminé, who simple shrugged, not understanding why it was there either. She motioned for him to flip to the next page.

There was Roxas, not the look-a-like and Axel was in the picture as well. There was something odd about the picture though. He looked closer, staring at two black haired figures leaning back to back beside Roxas, but before he could really make anything out, the page caught fire.

He dropped it down the ground and backed away from it, looking around for Naminé, but she was nowhere in sight. He was in another room that was wrecked and destroyed, fires blazing outside the destroyed walls. He had never seen this room before.

A sob echoed from behind him. He whirled around and there, kneeling on the floor, was a girl who couldn't have been that much older than he was. Her light brown hair was tangled and messy, her skin was dirty, bruised and cut, and her primarily black clothes looked like they had seen better days. She was sobbing, her gloved hands covering her mouth to muffle the sound, but it was no use.

Sora took a few steps towards her until he could see the side of her face. Her bright blue eyes were filled with tears, the blue standing out strongly against the redness. Her other hand was clasping the pendant of her silver necklace as she shook with sobs.

After a moment, she lowered her hand from her mouth and clasped it over her other one, taking a deep breath. There was a pause before she rose from the ground, dropping her hands to her sides. Sora gasped. The pendant she had been holding was identical to his. Even the chain (which looked much older on hers compared to his) was the same.

A determined look passed across her features and in a flash of light, the Kingdom Key appeared in her hand. The splashes of sky blue, hot pink, vibrant purple and lime green that she had across her mostly black clothes were stained in red blood, but she didn't seem to care about that.

Sora took a step towards her, and suddenly she shot around, holding out the Keyblade defensively. Her eyes widened with shock as they locked onto his, her jaw dropping slightly as her arm fell loosely to her side, the Kingdom Key vanishing.

Her eyes welded up with tears again as she took a step towards him. She held out her hand for a moment before pulling it back. She was trying to tell him something, but he couldn't hear her. He was rubbish at lip-reading too, so he had no clue what she wanted to tell him.

She seemed to realize this as a hopeless look appeared on her face. She was crying again, desperately trying to communicate with him.

And suddenly they weren't alone. A young man with spiky red hair appeared behind her, taking a few steps to her side. She looked around at him before pointing at Sora, but his indigo eyes slid over the spot that Sora stood in a confused look. Sora knew that this person couldn't see him.

This young man shot the girl a sad look before putting an arm around her shoulders and starting to guide her out of the room. She struggled a bit, trying to talk to him as she was pulled away, but he couldn't hear whatever she was trying to say.

Everything went pitch black rapidly, and it was like someone had turned up the volume from zero to a hundred in that split second. Sora could hear voices echoing around him loudly. There were too many voices, all jumbled together, all saying the same and different things.

"I wanna be-" "I'm just sad." "His brother always goes missing." "…they all hate—" "You're wrong!" "-with you two." I don't know this place." "I may not know it's you…" "Do you hate me for—" "You may not know it's me." "The other side—" "Who else will I—" "Remembers." "That's me too." "I watch you, kay Sowa?" "I let Roxas—" "—Will I have—" "Die." "Look at me Roxas." "Look Venny!" "Maybe I'm the biggest—" "I'm not supposed to exist." "Nobody of them all." "We've got more in common—" "I don't really exist in your heart." "Than you think." "The girl you really care for…" "Aqua…Terra…" "The one who was always with you…" "Red travels the furthest." "I know you will." "Ice cream with?" "It's not me. It's her." "I promise."

Sora was holding his head, his knees hitting the ground as the voices echoed around him, louder and more jumbled together by the minute. None of it made any sense at all. There were just too many fragments of sentences, all being whispered at the exact same time.

And suddenly, it stopped. Sora slowly opened his eyes and looked up. He was on the edge of a large plateau above the ground, nothing but sand and sky for miles around except for a lone figure only a few feet away from him. With confusion he stood up and stared at the figure. It was an old man, balding with only a little of his once silver hair left. He slowly turned around, and Sora took a step backwards when he saw his glowing orange eyes, the mark of being consumed by the darkness for far too long.

"You're already my puppet, Keyblade Master," he grumbled. "Exactly like your brother was."

There was a flash of light and he was in a completely different environment. He was in his house on Destiny Islands, but something was different about it. Some of the quirky things that his mother always kept in the halls were gone, and there were empty glass bottles and beer cans everywhere. With a confused look, Sora wandered down the hall until he reached his own room, and then he pushed open the door.

A furious blush passed over his face as he saw what was inside. It was himself, and Kairi. He took a step back, blushing even darker, but unable to pull his eyes away. Their clothes were scattered across his room as they lay under his covers together, doing more than just kissing, or at least he assumed so from the look on Kairi's face.

Sora closed his eyes, but the image was burned into his mind. When he opened them though, Kairi was still there, but he was gone. Actually, he noticed, they were in the woods, but he barely paid any attention to that. He could see the back of Kairi's head as she was held in place by two creatures that looked like some odd hybrid between a Shadow Heartless and a Dusk Nobody. An armored figure stood in front of her, raising his Keyblade into the air.

Sora shot forward, trying to stop it, but everything seemed to go in slow motion. He couldn't get near her for some reason, and all he could do was watch as the blade made its way down towards her. The closest he could get was when he was beside of her instead of behind her a few feet away.

And he felt like his heart had stopped.

This Kairi wasn't much older than his Kairi, yet as these creatures held her with a Keyblade descending towards her skull, her stomach was protruding from a body in a way that didn't imply obesity at all. No, she looked like she was pregnant. Before the Keyblade could hit her though, everything changed again. Instead, she was lying on a rather crude looking bed, screaming in pain as sweat fell down her face. Everything but her was blurred, but he could visibly make out himself, a dark haired woman he didn't know and the woman with blue hair from his dreams. She continued to scream in agony, and it was the only sound that Sora could hear at the moment.

Her screaming was interrupted by a sudden, shrill shriek of a baby, and everything clicked together in Sora's mind. The image of he and Kairi in his room, Kairi's stomach, her screaming in pain, the baby's cry…they were going to have a baby, and in the not-so-distant future.

He was in the room the brown haired girl had been in, but this time he could see something else. It looked like a floating crystal heart. The young man with red hair (that looked a lot like the same color that Kairi had, he noted, his pulse rising) and indigo eyes (Kairi had indigo eyes) from before was standing before him. He was staring up at the crystal, with a look of contempt on his face. He summoned a Keyblade that Sora had never seen before, and with an angry yell that mingled together with the constant crying of the baby that still echoed around him, he tried to smash the diamond heart, but he barely left a crack in it as he fell to the floor.

"SORA!"

**VVVVVVVVV**

Sora jerked up quickly, and the person leaning over him jerked away just in time to avoid smashing their heads together. He breathed rapidly, and he could feel the person who woke him up moving closer to him.

"Shhh, it's alright," Kairi soothing voice entered his mind as she knelt by his side, resting her cheek on his hair while rubbing his back comfortingly. "It was just a dream."

Sora managed to calm his breathing down. He let his eyes close again as Kairi hugged him, rocking them back and fourth slightly in a soothing, almost maternal way.

His eyes snapped open again as he pulled out of her arms and turned to look at her. His eyes trailed to her flat stomach for a moment before looking up into her confused eyes. She shifted her position a bit and put her hands on either side of his face, asking, "Are you okay?"

Sora let out a muffled sob as he suddenly grabbed a hold of her and held her close, burying his face into her hair. He didn't know what to say. The people, the baby, the voices, the screaming…he didn't know where to begin or if he even wanted to tell her.

"I-I don't know," he stammered eventually. "I don't think—I—it wasn't normal—"

"I know it wasn't. I've been trying to wake you up for the last half an hour."

Sora took in their surroundings of tall green trees and soft green grass. That's right, they were in New World, and had planned on leaving after waking up. After helping Pocahontas and John Smith stop a war between the natives and the Englishmen, they had agreed that they should get some sleep before trekking into the next, unknown world. They slept in a clearing that Pocahontas had said was safe, and if the native woman said it was safe, than they'd trust her.

"Maybe," Kairi said suddenly, "Grandmother Willow can help?"

Sora was hesitant to talk to anybody about what he'd seen, especially the last part of his dream. Torn between his embarrassment of watching himself having sex with the girl in front of him, the horror of seeing someone try to kill her, and the panic of the thought of her having a baby in only a few years, he didn't want to share it with anyone. It would drive him mad if he didn't though.

"Okay," he replied to her, "we'll go see her. Maybe we'll see Pocahontas again before we leave."

"Yeah," Kairi agreed as they both stood up. "It's horrible that John Smith had to leave. I know he would have died, but still…"

Sora didn't want to think about anyone dying. He didn't want to think of the girl with his pendant and blood-soaked clothes. He didn't want to think of the boy who looked like Roxas who seemed so happy one minute, but so sad the next, calling out to his friends who never heard him. He didn't want to think about a Keyblade coming towards Kairi heads or her screams of pain.

He glanced down again at her stomach, just to reassure himself again. It was stupid, they had never slept together before, they hadn't even come close, but he still felt better looking at her and seeing no bulge.

Sora also wished that Roxas could see the same dreams he had been having, but he couldn't. He told Sora that it was almost like the brunet's unconscious mind was sleeping. To clarify himself, it was like when Sora and Roxas were able to interact on the stained glass platform. Instead of talking to Roxas though, he slept, just lying there. It was like he was dreaming inside of a dream.

As they got up and walked through the trees, Sora couldn't help but let his mind wander. As weird as the dream was, and as freaked out as he was by every aspect of it, he couldn't help but blush as he thought about Kairi. He was a teenage boy, what could he say? He didn't want to get her pregnant, didn't want to see some armoured figure hurt her, didn't want to hear her scream during childbirth, but at the same time, he couldn't deny that he'd love to take her and-

He stumbled over the root of a tree.

"Are you alright?" Kairi asked as she knelt beside him. Sora looked up at her in a dazed way before he realized what had just happened. An enemy could toss him high into the air and he could easily correct himself, but the root of an innocent tree could trip him, causing him to skin his knees. He stared at Kairi for a second before a bout of laughter escaped his lips, and soon he found himself laughing hysterically with tears in his eyes.

Kairi stared at him as if he had grown a second head, but that just made him laugh harder. He rolled onto his back and suddenly reached out, grabbing her and pulling her onto him. He continued to laugh as he hugged her tightly.

Kairi started to giggle as she laid on him and asked, "Did you hit your head? Again?" The last part was added in almost warily.

Sora took several deep breaths and moved so that they were laying on their sides, grinning as he stared into her curious eyes. He gave her a quick kiss and said, "We should go see Grandmother Willow now."

"Are you done acting like a complete nutjob?"

"Never," he replied as he pushed himself off the ground, holding out a hand to help her up. He purposely pulled her a little too roughly so that she ended up in his arms. He realized about a split second later that doing that probably wasn't the best idea, because he was a guy and he just woke up from a dream of him in bed with his girlfriend, and it was painfully obvious what he was at least partially thinking about.

Kairi blushed wildly and he knew that he was caught. Instead of giving him a disgusted look or anything, she smiled shyly and backed out of the tight hug. She took his hand into her own and pulled her along after him silently.

Sora was a little surprised that she hadn't said anything, but he was thankful. This way they could pretend it never happened.

Kairi was definitely embarrassed, but she couldn't actually growl at her boyfriend for thinking about her in that way, especially not when he was asleep. She was a little skeptical about what he was going to talk to Grandmother Willow about now, because the redhead was sure that the tree wouldn't want to hear about a wet dream of her and-

She suddenly stopped walking and Sora stared at her oddly. She looked around, letting go of his hand so that she could place her hands on her hips, and said, "It was me you were thinking about, right?"

Sora could hear the anger in her voice and felt like shrinking back a bit. He wasn't quite sure how to answer this question, but he figured it was best to be honest. "Yes." This was probably the most embarrassing and awkward conversation they'd had.

Kairi nodded her head, took his hand again and said, "Good. Well, not good—but you know. If it had been someone else, my Keyblade would have been meeting an appendage of yours that you really don't want it to." It was embarrassing, yes, but at least he was thinking about her and not some of those girls on Destiny Islands who walked around in pretty much nothing all of the time. How she hated those girls with their excessive cleavage and skinny bodies. She tried to be stealthy as she looked down at herself, but Sora caught her and laughed. He kissed her temple gently and they kept on walking in silence, putting that conversation behind them.

The two made their way through the trees, and finally they found themselves at the edge of a river. Following the smooth, clear water, they reached Grandmother Willow in no time.

Sora peaked inside, catching a glimpse of a black haired woman sitting on the tree stump in front of the willow tree. He was about to back out to give Pocahontas some privacy, but the branches of the trees moved behind Sora and Kairi, gently pushing them forward.

"It's alright, you're not interrupting anything," came the calm, elderly voice of an old woman. To anyone who didn't know that it was the tree speaking, it would have been a very frightening moment.

Sora took Kairi's hand as he led her in. Pocahontas smiled weakly at the two and Sora helped the redhead up onto the stump, and she said, "I thought you were leaving."

"We still are," Kairi answered, "but Sora needed to speak to Grandmother Willow about—something." She wasn't quite sure she wanted to be there for that conversation.

"Yes, yes," the face in the willow tree said. "I can feel the disturbance in you young man. Tell me, what is troubling you?"

"Er—well…" Sora trailed off, feeling a little foolish. Flit zoomed passed his head, staring at him for a moment before flying around Kairi. "I, I had a dream. I—feel a little stupid now but—"

Grandmother Willow cut him off and said, "Never feel foolish when speaking of a dream. They tell us our inner desires, and sometimes, they tell us more than reality does."

Sora looked up at her before looking down at his hands and saying, "I see people I've never met before in my life. I see places I've never been to, and it's all blurred and jumbled together. I can never tell what's what anymore."

"Tell me, these people, do they seem happy?"

"No," he answered. "None of them do. All of them try to speak to me, but I can never hear what they're saying. The only time I can hear anything, it's all rushed and jumbled together, like there's hundreds of people trying to speak at once. Some things sound so familiar, like I've heard them before. Sometimes, I think they're Roxas' memories blurred with ones I can't remember, but I'm not sure."

One of the vines moved under Sora's chin, tilting his face so he was staring up at the tree's face. She smiled at him and said, "You have a special heart. You have such little darkness in you, that it would actually be dangerous for you. If the light outbalances the darkness too much in a heart, then the person can simply fall into a deep sleep. The exception being those that were never meant to have darkness in them, or those that were never meant to have light in them. You were destined for neither."

"If that's true, why am I not asleep then? Wouldn't my heart be weak?" Sora asked.

"That is why you have such a special heart. It is possible for anyone to connect their heart to another, but only one other. You, however, can connect your heart to many people all at the same time. All of these connections flowing through you, whether you realize they are there or not, are most likely the reason for your dreams. You are connected to every person you've seen in your dreams, any person you've befriended, and it's through these connections that your heart stays strong while still having only a slight bit of darkness in you."

"I've never met them though, and the only person I've ever connected my heart to is Kairi," Sora said, giving the girl in question an affectionate look.

Grandmother Willow and Pocahontas both chuckled and said, "There is no question of that. Your hearts are bound very tightly together. It's the strongest bond you have, but there are others. Your friend, Riku, for instance. Or your Nobody, Roxas, and her Nobody, Naminé. You have many connections in your young heart."

"If that's true," Kairi piped up, "why are these dreams only acting up now?"

Grandmother Willow didn't answer. Instead, she simply stared at Sora with an expectant look. Kairi looked at him curiously, as Meeko moved from the silent Pocahontas' lap to her own.

"Because it didn't," Sora answered. "I've always had weird dreams kinda like this, but they were never so vivid or long. They were so blurred I could barely make anything out, and they were short too." He looked up at the wise tree. "Why are they becoming so vivid now?"

Grandmother Willow frowned and said, "Something is coming that will effect all worlds, and you are going to be in the lead for everything that is good, when it does come. These people you see are important. Your allies and enemies."

Sora nodded and stared back down at his hand that was intertwined with Kairi's. The last part of his dream passed through his mind again, but he didn't want to talk about it in front of his girlfriend. Given what happened earlier, it would much too embarrassing and disturbing on his part.

"Pocahontas," Grandmother Willow said suddenly, "why don't you take Kairi to get a few things for their trip. We can't send them off without any food."

Pocahontas looked from Grandmother Willow to Sora and back again before nodding and standing up. She held her hand out to Kairi with a smile, but Kairi hesitated to take it. She shot Sora a worried look, but he smiled warmly at her. After a moment, Kairi took Pocahontas' hand and followed her away from the weeping willow.

"Now," the tree said, "you may speak without worry."

Sora blushed slightly as he said, "The last part of my dream, I saw Kairi and I—well…she got pregnant. Then I saw her when she was pregnant, this armoured person about to kill her. It changed, and she was screaming and it was one of the only other sounds I heard from the rapid whispers. I think—there was a baby's cry just after that, so I think she might have been…giving birth…" He looked uncomfortable at the thought. "Then I saw a boy. Well, not a boy, he was older than I am now, and he had a Keyblade, and Kairi's hair color and eye color. Earlier on in my dream, I saw him with a girl with brown hair who had my pendant and I think they were my son and daughter. The girl, she was crying, sad, covered in blood, and she was trying to tell me something. The boy, at the end, was trying to destroy something. A crystal heart I think. I just…I don't understand. I mean, Kairi and I couldn't have been much older than we are now. A year, maybe two, but not much."

"As much as your mind is trying to give you a glimpse of the past, it also is warning you of your future," the tree said after a moment of thought.

"So, you think it's my future?" Sora asked, fear tinting his voice. "A kid as a teenager only to have them grow up to be in pain all the time?"

"Do not fear the future," Grandmother Willow advised softly. "What was meant to happen will happen no matter which path you choose to take."

"So, everyone is meant to end up hurt and sad?" Sora asked angrily.

"No one said that that was meant to happen," she replied wisely.

"And the baby?" he questioned after a moment of silence.

"Well, of course you both have the ability to procreate. You could do so now if you really wanted to, " Grandmother Willow said, some of her vines resting on his shoulder. Sora had a feeling the tree was mocking him a bit, but the next words she said were much more soothing. "But look into your heart. Is it the worst thing that could happen?"

Sora looked up at her and smiled weakly. A baby with Kairi was definitely not the worst thing that could happen. Actually, it was something he did want to happen, but they were just so young in his dream. It was a frightening prospect, but maybe it wasn't set in stone.

"Thank you," he told the wise tree. "I-I probably would have gone mad if I didn't tell this to somebody."

"You are welcome," she said with a smile.

"Sora?" he heard Kairi call out. He smiled at the tree again before leaping to his feet and moving off of the stump. He found Kairi with an animal-skin bag like the one he had seen the other Native's carrying around, filled with corn and berries.

"It's not much," Pocahontas said, "but it should help."

"Thank you so much," Sora said to her. "For everything. I'm sure John Smith will be fine, and he'll come back as soon as he can."

The woman smiled back and said, "I hope. May the wind help you reach your destination quickly." Kairi and Sora both smiled at her as she turned and left. Flit flew around them before darting after her, and Meeko waved happily before rushing away. They had no clue where Percy the dog was, but he was probably somewhere nearby.

"Sora," Kairi said suddenly, looking at him. Her eyes were searching his, and Sora knew what she wanted. She knew there was more to the dream than he let on .Why else would it go on from something so serious as he had been describing earlier to a more erotic one?

"There are some things that I just want to keep to myself," he said after a moment. "For not at least. When I think I'm ready to talk about it, you'll be the first to know."

Kairi nodded her head, and Sora took the bag from her, slinging it over his own shoulder.

Naminé appeared, smiling at the two of them. "Ready to go?" she asked.

Sora and Kairi both nodded, and she held up her hand, creating a vortex of darkness before vanishing. With a last glance at the world around them, they locked their hands together tightly and walked into the portal.

**Jiminy's Journal**

**Pocahontas** – A native woman who only wants to follow her own path in life and not the one that her father wanted her to have. She ended up falling in love with a settler named John Smith who had to return to England when he was shot protecting her father. She first appeared in _Pocahontas_ (1995)

**Grandmother Willow** – A wise old weeping willow tree whom is a source of guidance and wisdom for Pocahontas, also acting as a confident. She first appeared in _Pocahontas_ (1995)

**Meeko** – The raccoon sidekick of Pocahontas who always seems to be hungry and getting into some kidn of mischief. He first appeared in _Pocahontas_ (1995)

**Flit** – The hummingbird sidekick of Pocahontas who seems much more uptight and protective of his human friend. He gets annoyed with Meeko more often than not. He first appeared in _Pocahontas_ (1995)

The New World – A world made of mostly forests and unsettled land. The natives who lived there know how to live off of the land, but the settlers who came from across the ocean wanted the land for itself. Key characters here are Pocahontas, Grandmother Willow and John Smith.

**NOTE**

I decided since I took so long last time to update that I'd put this one up early too.

ALSO, you've probably noticed that dreams are becoming a bigger focus in this than the original. Yes, that is on purpose. I mean, look at the title of the story. Dreams are important.

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	16. Friends On The Other Side

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_**Chapter Fifteen – Friends On The Other Side**_

Laughter echoed around the forest as Kairi came tumbling out of a black portal, not paying attention to any of her surroundings. She giggled hysterically, tears welding up in her eyes as she did. She glanced at the portal again, and when she heard Sora start to tumble through it, she started giggling again.

She rubbed her tears of laughter away and looked around for Sora, but all she could see was a smear of oil on the grass. That was enough to make her laugh again. She heard him grumble angrily before she said, "I'm sorry, but you got oil dumped all over you."

"Whatever," came Sora's voice from beyond the tall grass. She could hear him moving towards her as she studied their surroundings. Everything in that place was huge. "At least I was a cool looking car and—really? Double you-tee-eff-bee-bee-que?"

"You did not just spell out what the fuck barbeque," Kairi said, amusement leaking through her voice.

"I've been a lot of things, but not this!"

She blinked with surprise at his words and looked around, only to see a green frog moving around awkwardly, looking at himself. He looked at her and Kairi could clearly see that this frog had Sora's cerulean eyes.

"Sora?" she gaped. "What happened to you? You're a frog!"

"Thank you for noticing," he said sarcastically. "Maybe you should take a look in the water at yourself, Princess."

Kairi frowned and looked into the water at her reflection, letting out a scream as she did. She stumbled away from the water, tripping over her own long, green legs as she fell into Sora's arms.

"We're frogs!" she said, her voice higher than normal. "We're green, and disgusting, and—and slimy!"

"Actually, it is mucus," another voice said, causing Kairi to scream from surprise and move behind Sora. A frog with hazel eyes stared at them curiously, looking from Sora to Kairi and back again. "You are not frogs, are you?"

"Er…" Sora stared at him oddly, "are you?"

"No," he answered as he walked over to them. He gave a graceful flourish of a bow and said, "I am Prince Naveen of Maldonia." He took Kairi's hand and kissed it. "It is as pleasure to meet you."

Sora scowled and got between this Naveen guy and Kairi before he said, "Keep your froggie lips to yourself or I'll make sure you can't use them again."

"I mean no harm!" the frog said while stumbling back and waving his arms around wildly. "I was only being friendly."

"A little too friendly if you ask me," Sora grumbled. Kairi nudged him, giggling a bit.

"Yes, well, it's best I stay away from you. The last time I kissed but a simple woman, we only had problems." He let out a dramatic sigh.

"A simple—" Kairi stuttered out, rage passing through her indigo eyes. "Now you listen here!"

The other frog was ignoring them now though, instead stalking a few flies. Kairi went to growl at him again, but another feminine voice called out, "Naveen!"

He looked around and said, "Shh, you are frightening the food."

"Oh no! No, no, no!" the voice said. "There is no way I am kissing a frog and eating a bug in the same day."

Sora and Kairi watched with fascination as Naveen started stalking a small firefly. His tongue lashed out, and at the exact same time another pink tongue appeared. The firefly quickly flew out of the way and the two tongues hit each other. They watched with amusement as two separate frogs ended up flying into each other, their tongues getting stuck.

Sora snorted with laughter and said, "That's one way to round first base."

Kairi giggled and covered her mouth. This just caused Sora to laugh harder, and his laughter in turn caused her to laugh even more. They would have helped these two, but they were in a fit of laughter on the ground. They only stopped when a large alligator appeared on the scene.

"Hey you guys find anything to eat…oh…" He stared at the two frogs for a moment before glancing at Sora and Kairi. "Hey! Two more little frogs! Don't tell me you're people too, like these two?"

"Er…yes?" Sora answered. He had befriended a lot of things in the past, but an alligator wasn't one of them.

"Oh wow, where you two coming from? Same place these two are from? I'm Louis, by the way," the crocodile introduced himself, excitement evident in his voice.

Before Sora or Kairi could say anything, he heard the female frog mutter, "We could use a little help."

He turned around to the tangled frog and said, "Right. Hang on, old Louis got it covered." He picked them up and started twisting them around like a two-frogged-rubix cube. "Is that better?"

"How the hell is that even possible?" Kairi asked, her eyes widening when she saw just how tied up the two frogs were now. She didn't even think that a tongue could do that in real life.

Sora glanced at her seriously and said, "You just go with it. On another note, tongues need to stay inside our mouths." Kairi looked at him, and he had the decency to look mortified when it occurred to him exactly what he said. "No! I didn't mean—"

"Stop while you're ahead," Kairi said as Louis ran off, saying something about a sharp stick. They moved over to the other frogs and asked, "Are you alright?"

"This could be better," the girl said to them. "This is all your fault."

"My fault?" Naveen argued back.

"Are you guys dating or something?" Sora asked after listening to them argue for a moment.

"No, no, no," they answered quickly.

"Well looky here!" another voice yelled. Sora and Kairi looked up and saw the little firefly coming towards there. "You and your boyfriend got a little carried away, am I right, am I right?"

Again, they protested, but the bug just let out a disbelieving sound. "Let me shine a little like on the situation." Once he got himself glowing (it took a few tries) he flew towards them. Naveen and the female frog both winced from the light, and he said, "Hey it's okay, I'm not going to as-plode or anything. I ain't no firecracker! I just got my big butt glowing! That's right! Women like a man with a big, fat pouch."

Sora chuckled. He liked this little firefly already. The bug flew into the tangled frogs, and after a few minutes, he was able to free them.

"Are you alright?" Sora asked them as he hopped over.

The firefly flew over to him, starring before he said, "Why hello there. Bout time I introduced myself. My name Raymond (he flew in the air and managed to write his name with light), but everybody call me Ray (he flew through the light, causing the mond to disappear).

"Pardon me, but your accent, it's funny, no?" Naveen said. No one pointed out the pure irony of his question

"I was born and bred in the bayou. You must not be from around here," Ray said.

"Actually, we are from a place far far away from this world," Naveen said, motioning to himself and the female frog. "As for these two, I do not know where they are from. Odd to meet two others like us. Shadow man, yes?" He added the last part while glancing towards Sora and Kairi.

"Er…no," Kairi answered.

"Go to bed, ya'll from Shreveport?" Ray asked excitedly.

Naveen stuttered for a minute before saying, "No, no, we are people. I think they are too."

"Yeah, we are," Kairi answered.

"Prince charming here got himself turned into a frog by a voodoo witch doctor," she said before turning to Sora and Kairi. "You two sure you weren't dealing with him too? Shadow man's tricky."

"No, we're from a little farther away than you are," Sora said. "We just ended up here and poof, we were frogs. I'm Sora by the way, and this is Kairi."

"Well it's nice to meet you," she replied. "My name's Tiana. We plan on turning back into people, so maybe you two should come with us because nobody wants to stay a frog. We were just on our way to Mama Odie's. We think that maybe she can—"

"Woah, woah," Ray said suddenly, flying in between them. "Mama Odie? Ya'll heading the wrong direction! Now what kinda chuckle-head told ya'll to go this-a-way?" Just as he was finishing, Louis appeared.

He burst through the bushes, swinging a stick around in the air and yelling, "I found a stick!"

"Louis," Tiana said, not impressed at all. "Ray here says you've been taking us in the wrong direction?"

"Well I—uh—I was confused by the topography and the geography-and-choreography and—oh hey! I just realized I didn't get your names my two new froggie friends." He bent down to get a closer look at Sora and Kairi.

Sora and Kairi were both visibly amused by his sudden change of conversation. Sora chuckled a bit before saying, "I'm Sora, and this is my fri—what?" Kairi had nudged him sharply and shot him a glare, but he wasn't a mind reader so he wasn't sure why she was glaring at him. "Kairi."

Louis laughed loudly and said, "She's not impressed with you. She your girl?"

"My girl?" Sora repeated while blushing a bit. Suddenly, it occurred to him why Kairi had seemed a little angry just seconds before. He had been about to say that she was only a friend, and nothing more. "Yeah, she is." Kairi smiled again, appeased by his answer.

"First rule of the bayou," Ray said to them all, "never take directions from a gator." He whistled suddenly, and the trees around them started to glow with fireflies. "Why, me and my relationals will show ya'll the way."

"That's beautiful," Kairi whispered. Sora nodded in agreement while Tiana stared in awe and Naveen said something that none of them could understand.

Ray flew up to speak to the fireflies in the trees before saying, "Follow the bouncing butt!"

Sora shrugged and said to Kairi, "Donald, Goofy and I usually just go with the flow."

"Alright, as long as I can stop being a frog soon," Kairi said as they all began to follow the glowing stream of singing fireflies.

None of them noticed the raven watching them from high in the trees take off into the air and out of sight.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

He leaned back on his padded chair, crossing his legs and setting his feet on the table while staring at the figure across from him. He really should be watching that bumbling idiot, Lawrence, but she had insisted on a meeting, something about a new development.

His violent violet eyes took in the figure across from him. She was a tall woman with a pointed face and green tinted skin and horns adorning her head. He wasn't sure if they were real or just part of some elaborate, but from what he had seen her do so far, he wouldn't be surprised if she was a creature from hell itself. Maleficent was her name, and she had come to him when he asked his friends from the other side for help. They had brought her here, and though he wasn't quite sure why, the help that she brought with her in the form of Heartless were much more efficient than Lawrence was.

His name was Dr. Facilier, more commonly known as the Shadow Man. He specialized in voodoo, sometimes hoodoo, and there were some things that he had never even tried. He used the powers of the darkness and shadows to make money off of the gullible people of Mystic Bayou, but a recent turn of events led him to a much larger scheme than just having a man pay him to magic some hair on his head (only to make him appear like a werewolf moments after he met a pretty woman). The Prince of Maldonia had arrived, and it was assumed that he would marry the annoying little bint of a woman, Charlotte La Bouff. While Facilier had little interest in Charlotte, he was interested in with her father, Big Daddy La Bouff, had, and that was money and a lot of it. The plot was simple: turn the real Prince Naveen into a frog and turn his gullible servant Lawrence into the Prince. Have him marry Charlotte then kill big Daddy La Bouff. Lawrence would get 40% of the money, and he would get 60%. It was a foolproof plan until Lawrence had let the frog prince out of the jar.

That's when he had asked his friends from the other side for help, and that was when they had brought Maleficent to him. In return for having her minions locate the Prince, she wanted to be able to spread the Heartless and the darkness through his world. As long as he himself wasn't harmed, Facilier saw no problem in the plan. He would just scoop up Lawrence's part of the money and then sit back and take charge of what remained of the world. Maleficent couldn't be in several places at once, so she needed people to take charge of the worlds for her.

Now though, she had said that there was a new development and demanded that he make time to speak to her. While he was sure that Lawrence would mess up somehow in his absence, he came to meet Maleficent anyway.

"What kind of development are we talking about?" he asked her, his hat tilting down to just above his eyes as he observed her.

"There is a boy who commands a very powerful weapon," she explained, her hands resting on the top of her staff as she spoke, "one more powerful than anything you can create with your flimsy magic. The Keyblade. He has stumped me again and again with the help of his accomplices."

"So," Facilier said, "you want me to get rid of him?"

"Not quite," Maleficent replied. "You see, in the past he has been useful at times to deal with shared enemies, and once again it seems that he and I have an enemy in common. I wish for him to deal with them, so we cannot kill him or capture him just yet. I have also found out that he is much more different from any others that use a Keyblade. He has a power within him, though weak and not trained, that can unlock ultimate power. The enemies that I have in common with him want him for the same reason."

"Ultimate power, huh?" he said thoughtfully.

"He will not help you, if you plan to double cross me and go to him first," Maleficent warned him sharply. "He has destroyed anyone who has got in his way in the past. That's why I plan on letting him deal with these common enemies. He will be weak after dealing with them, and I'll make my presence known."

"And how does this effect me and my operation here?" Facilier asked, a rather skeptic tone to his voice.

"He is a being of light that moves through the darkness to travel from place to place, so it's easy to track him. He and his current companion, a Princess of Heart, have appeared here in this world. I have no doubt that you will ultimately end up confronting him," Maleficent said.

"What gives you that idea? They could end up anywhere. It's a big world."

"Yes," Maleficent agreed. "But the Keyblade Master, Sora, has a habit of getting himself involved with other world's issues. He almost always befriends those in need, and makes great impacts wherever he goes, usually for the worst for people like us. He's probably already met this frog prince you lost and whoever he's with, and he'll probably help them. I promise you this much, he will get in the way of both your plans and my own."

"So what do you suggest doing?" Facilier asked after a moment of thought.

"You cannot kill them, nor capture them just yet, but that doesn't mean you can't…ward them off in rather violent ways," Maleficent said. She suddenly turned to the open window as a raven flew inside and landed on the glowing green orb of her staff when she removed her hands. "Ahh Diablo. What have you found, my pet?"

Facilier watched as the raven cawed at her for a moment before she turned back to him and said, "I was correct. The Keyblade Master, Sora, and the Princess of Heart, Kairi, are both here. They too are apparently frogs and are with Naveen and another frog that's supposed to be a human. Both Sora and Kairi have the ability to use Keyblades and from what I have observed, are powerful. However, they are also each other's greatest weaknesses. I'm sure you can use this to your advantage. Remember, do not kill them. They are still of use to me, and what is of use to me, in the long run, is of use to you too. I will leave some Heartless here under your control."

Before Facilier could ask her how to deal with a Keyblade (whatever that was), or how to handle the Heartless, she vanished in a flash of green flames. He rubbed his eyes before saying, "Hired help, absolutely useless." He glanced around the room and saw several Heartless rising from the ground. "Well, you heard the dragon woman. Find them, but don't kill any of them or take their hearts."

With that, the Heartless vanished, looking for their new prey.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

It was quite a while later before the rest of the fireflies left them, having traveled fairly far already. Tiana filled them in on the entire story, how Naveen had been turned into a frog, how she kissed him to try and turn him back but was turned into a frog herself and how they ended up where they were now. Kairi and Sora explained that they got pulled away from their home and we're trying to find their friends. It was a brief and nearly dishonest version of the story, but they weren't supposed to tell anyone that they were actually from other worlds. Everyone usually figured it out, but they never right out said anything most of the time.

"Don't forget to tell Angela that Ray-Ray says bonjons!" Ray called out to his family as he waved to them.

"Is that your girl?" Kairi asked teasingly.

"Oh no, no, no, no," Ray replied to her, seemingly amused. "My girl, oh ho, that's Evangeline."

"Evangeline?" Tiana asked as she hopped beside Kairi.

"She the most pretty firefly that ever did glow," he said happily, letting out a squeal of happiness at the end. He went on to explain how he spoke to her every night, and how he knew that someday they would be together forever.

"Aw, that's sweet," Tiana said.

"Yes so sweet," Naveen butted in sarcastically. "Just don't settle down so quickly my friend. There are plenty of fireflies in the swamp."

Tiana let out a disgusted sound as she picked up a stick and cleared the way through a bush. Kairi made a face at Naveen and said, "That's not true."

"Ah well, yes, you have your boy fairly whipped, no?"

Sora glowered at him. Out of all the princes that he had ever met, this was the most arrogant one, but at the same time, he was almost the most charismatic. The four of them continued through the bushes, only stopping for a second as Louis pricked his finger and fell to the ground dramatically. Ray sighed and flew over to him, leaving them alone.

"You know waitress," Naveen said as Tiana hacked at the bushes. Sora was helping her, and Kairi was trailing behind them. "I finally figured out what's wrong with you."

"Oh this can't be good," Sora muttered.

"Have you now?" Tiana asked angrily, shooting a glare in his direction.

"You do not know how to have fun," he said simply but sarcastically. Kairi smacked him on the back of the head, and as he rubbed where she had hit him, he added, "Somebody had to say it."

"Thank you," Tiana replied sweetly, surprising both of the Keyblade Bearers. "Cause I figured out what your problem is too."

"I'm too wonderful?" he asked. Sora let go of the branch he was holding, and it flew back and smashed Naveen in the face. Normally Kairi would have felt sorry to see one person get picked on, but she strongly believed that he deserved it.

"No," she said simply while sending Sora a smile. "You're a no account, philandering, lazy bump on a log."

Naveen chuckled at her as he stood back up. He was about to say something else, but Kairi stopped him. He stared at her for a moment before coughing and saying, "Killjoy."

"What did you say?" Kairi snapped at him, her indigo eyes glaring at the Prince.

"Oh nothing," Naveen replied. She turned to walk away and he coughed again while saying, "Stick in the mud."

"Listen here mister," Kairi snapped at him. "I don't know what you're problem is, but Tiana is obviously a hard worker, and this stick-in-the-mud was taken from her home, has seen a lot of people get hurt, and has had to fight these creatures that want to rip out your heart to survive so far while you've been sucking on a silver spoon, chasing chambermaids around your ivory tower!" She panted heavily after she finished.

"Breathe Kai," Sora called out to her. "Once we find Mama Odie, this will all be taken care of."

"Actually, it's polished marble," he muttered. Kairi turned towards him, having been about to walk over to Sora, and reached out to wrap her green hands around his neck, when a net swooped out of nowhere.

At first glance, Sora thought it was a person, just a hick hunting in the bayou, but after a moment, he realized it wasn't. The creature had a familiar blood symbol on its chest, pitch black 'skin' and haunting yellow eyes.

Another creature jumped out from behind Sora and Tiana, and he quickly grabbed her arm, pulling her out of the way. Several spikes made up of what Sora could only guess was darkness appeared in its hands before it tossed the spikes at them. Both managed to move out of the way, just in time.

Kairi and Naveen stared up at the large Heartless out of the net that they were in. Kairi wondered, for a moment, if she could summon her Keyblade as a frog, but she didn't have to worry. Ray flew towards them, and smashed the creature in the face. Both of them ended up being throw into the water.

The large Heartless lunged towards Tiana and Sora, and in a swift movement, Sora summoned his Keyblade and managed to smash it back. Unfortunately, he fell on the log that they were on, catapulting them into the air and into a cage made of darkness. One of the Hearttless, the largest one, sat down on it so that they couldn't push up the top. Sora tried to stab the Heartless with his Keyblade, but the bottom of it had too much armor.

"What are these things?" Tiana asked him, rather calmly for the situation that they were in.

"These are Heartless," he replied grimly. "These ones are weird though. I've never seen them try to capture someone before. Whoever is controlling them is powerful."

Kairi and Naveen surfaced from the water, the latter happily yelling out, "Freedom!" His cheer was cut short as a gasp escaped his lips.

Kairi turned in the water and gasped when she saw Sora and Tiana in the cage with the Heartless around them. The Heartless were gathering close, and Kairi knew that if they didn't get their friends out of the cage, that the Heartless would vanish with them.

"Hang on!" Naveen said suddenly. Kairi looked around, but didn't get to say anything else as he grabbed a hold of her. His tongue slung out, sticking to a rock by the Heartless, and both of them were pulled in that direction. Naveen groaned as he was smashed between the rock and Kairi, but when the creatures looked around, he and Kairi quickly hid.

The Heartless looked around, seemingly confused by the sound of something crashing into the rock when there was nothing there. These weren't Nobodies though. They couldn't think, plan or calculate. They normally just went with their basic instincts, but if there was a powerful enough person controlling them, they would do whatever the person wanted within their abilities. They probably either thought that Sora was Naveen or that Tiana was Kairi, depending on who they were after.

Kairi and Naveen appeared on the head of one of them, and Tiana let out a gasp that Sora quickly covered. The two other Heartless noticed the frogs, and without much thought or calculation, they lunged for them.

Sora snorted with laughter as Kairi and Naveen got the Heartless fighting each other. The one that had been sitting on the cage moved, and they were able to push the top of the cage up, climbing out of it.

Kairi let out a scream as one of the creatures was about to slash at her with its claws, but Sora leapt in the way, slamming his Keyblade into its face.

Naveen grinned at Tiana and said, "Watch this." He jumped in front of one of them, and without a second thought, it jumped towards him, slamming into the other one. Tiana let out a laugh and ended up tripping another one. It slammed into the weapon of the first, and disintegrated before their eyes.

The last one was there, and the four frogs stood in front of them. It stared at them and they stared back.

"What's it doing?" Kairi whispered.

Sora moved forward, and gave it a small tap in the face, and it vanished. He shrugged, his Keyblade disappearing. "Musta been weak. You guys did good for not having to deal with this sort of thing before." The last part was said to Tiana and Naveen.

"Yeah," Kairi agreed, moving to stand beside Sora, "made a good team, actually."

"Yes, I guess we did," Naveen said. "Maybe you aren't, exactly, a complete stick-deep-in-the-mud. And—well—you aren't exactly a kill joy Kairi."

Kairi and Tiana both smiled at his slightly forced apology. They knew it was the best that they were going it get, but it was better than nothing.

"What now?" Kairi asked after a moment of silence.

"Find Ray and Louis, and get to Mama Odie's," Sora suggested.

"I could go for something to eat," Naveen said as they stared hopping back to where they could hear their alligator and firefly friends. Louis sounded like he was in pain for some reason, and Sora supposed that that was why he hadn't helped with the Heartless. Of course he later found out that Louis jumped into the pricker-bushes to avoid the Heartless, but at the time he gave him the benefit of the doubt.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

Tiana, it turned out, had a dream of owning her own restaurant. It was a dream that she had always shared with her loving, now deceased father.

Now Sora easily made friends, and even after only knowing her for about a day now, he could easily say she went on his list of friends. That being said, Sora could have easily been accused of being biased about how good her food was. But he wasn't. She had only a few things, and somehow she managed to make an awesome concoction she called swamp gumbo. Kairi had made a face at hearing the world 'swamp' mentioned at all with her food, let alone something called gumbo, which in her mind, sounded like something a two-year-old would make in a sandbox (worms included). Still, she as hungry and it had to be better than bugs any day.

Tiana had laughed at Sora and Kairi's approval of her cooking and said that she could do a better job if they were humans back in New Orleans.

"There she is!" Ray said excitedly while looking up at the sky at the stars. "The sweetest firefly in all creation."

"I wanna meet this girl!" Louis called out excitedly as he shoved more gumbo into his mouth. "Where she at?"

"How can you miss her?" Ray asked, smiling all the while. "She glowing right up there in front of ya'll."

Tiana and Naveen shot each other confused looks, and Sora stared at the bug as if he was insane. Those were stars, other worlds, not bugs. It's not like they were fireflies stuck up in a big blueish-black thing.

Louis laughed loudly and said, "That ain't no fi—" One of the makeshift bowls that they had been using cut him off by hitting him in the head.

He looked around and Naveen shushed him harshly.

"That's so cute," Kairi gushed as she held onto Sora's arm.

Ray chuckled and said, "You know how it is." He shot a sly glance behind him at Naveen and Tiana before adding in a whisper, "And I don't think you the only one that done know. Just the only ones who stopped being chuckle-heads and admitted it. Unlike Cap n' Cher."

Kairi giggled a bit, and Sora smiled broadly as he looked at the two, who were talking. The sad look that involuntarily passed over Naveen's face as Tiana hopped away told more than any words could.

The fact that, with a loud yell of surprise, Naveen was being dragged away by seemingly nothing was confusing though.

"Naveen!" Tiana yelled out and started hopping after him wildly. Kairi and Sora followed her, trying to catch up with their friend.

"Are those Heartless?" Kairi asked him as they hopped rapidly.

"Yeah, Shadows, but they're faster than any other ones I've seen. Faster than Neoshadows," Sora relied. Louis was running just behind him (somehow on two legs) and Ray was flying above them.

Naveen grabbed a hold of a falling tree, desperately trying to stop the shadow from pulling him away. His hands slid off just before they could reach him, and he was dragged across the water.

"We have to do something!"

"Like what?"

To answer Kairi's exclamation and Sora's question, several balls of what looked like light seemed to fly out of nowhere, smashing into the Shadow Heartless. They dispersed quickly, leaving Naveen floating in the water.

Louis came to a quick stop, and everyone else followed his lead as they saw a large, oddly shaped shadows approaching. The large, but admittedly wimpy gator let out a gasp and took a step back away from whatever it was approaching them.

Laughter reached their ears as the shadow vanished, instead replaced by a small old lady walking from the fog with what looked like a wooden club with fire at the end in her hand. She spun the club around in her hand, the fire creating a circle as it went, as she placed a hand on her lips and said, "Not bad for a 197-year-old blind lady."

She blew out the fire and suddenly, her old smiling face changed into an angered one. "Now which one of you naughty children have been messing with the Shadow Man?" She put the club to the ground, and Sora saw that it wasn't actually a club, but a walking stick.

Naveen grinned a guilty grin and Louis pointed at him with a frightened look.

The old woman sighed and said, "You best be coming with me then. You too, little froggies from beyond." How she knew that they were from another world, Sora didn't know, but the main point was that he had never felt 'cooler' than he did at the moment. Being called 'froggy from beyond' made him feel like such an alien, which he actually was to this world, all things considered.

Roxas, who had been keeping silent lately, growled at him to get going or he was going to be left behind. That was when he noticed that everyone else (including Kairi) was already hopping/walking/flying away.

He quickly rushed to catch up, eager to find out if he could turn back into a human in this world. It almost felt like old times with Donald and Goofy: discovering a new place, making new friends and helping solve problems there. It didn't feel like something was hunting them, or that there were evil, unknown enemies lurking just out of sight, waiting to strike when they least expected it.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

In a world far away from where Sora and Kairi were, an angered look appeared on a young woman's face. She tied her elbow length, forest green hair back so it would stop blowing into her deep brown eyes as she took in the scene before her: devastation.

All of the plants were dead, their power instead used for a much darker purpose. She could see the people who were once flesh, bone and blood turned to look more like shaped plants by a curse.

She was too late to save this place. She was too late to get to Aurora and Prince Phillip, and too late to warn the three good fairies.

With a sigh, her Keyblade appeared in her hand. The silver crescent moon on the hilt reflected it's real counterpart in the sky, the blade was a mixture of bright reds, oranges and yellows, and at the end, making it semi-key shaped, was half of a golden sun.

As beautiful as her weapon was, it was also incredibly dangerous. The power of a Keyblade was not to be underestimated, especially if no one knew what the Keyblade's natural abilities were.

Still, her weapon wasn't going to do her a lot of good in this world. It was too late to protect the people here.

Things were turning out much worse than she had originally feared.

**Jiminy's Journal**

**Prince Naveen** – The Prince of Maldonia, Naveen is arrogant and a bit of a player. He comes off as self-centered, only wanting to have fun, but when you dig a little deeper, it's easy to see that there's more to him than that. He first appeared in _The Princess and the Frog_ (2009).

**Tiana** – A young woman with a lot of spunk, determination and big dreams. She dreams of one day having her own restaurant, and works as hard as she can to get it. She's always willing to help out a friend though. She first appeared in _The Princess and the Frog_ (2009).

**Louis** – A friendly alligator from the bayou who is actually a pretty big wimp. He has a dreams of playing jazz in front of hundreds of people and wants to turn into a human so that he can. He first appeared in _The Princess and the Frog_ (2009).

**Ray**– A quick-talking little firefly who is very blunt about everything. He often jumps to conclusions, but he is a very friendly creature who stands up for his friends. He's in love with a star that he calls Evangeline. He first appeared in _The Princess and the Frog_ (2009).

**Mama Odie**– The mysterious, blind voodoo woman who lives in a boat in a tree in the bayou. Although rather eccentric, she is very wise and always encourages people to look a little deeper into themselves to see what they really want. She first appeared in _The Princess and the Frog _(2009).

**Dr. Facilier** – More commonly known as the Shadow Man. He plays with the dark half of voodoo for his own gain and was the one to turn Naveen (and to an extension, Tiana) into a frog in the first place. He first appeared in _The Princess and the Frog_ (2009).

**Maleficent **– Considered the darkest of the dark creatures of Disney, Maleficent is a witch who has led many worlds to descrution before. She is a purely evil witch who works towards her own gain, even if it means helping her enemies to defeat a common enemy. She first appeared in _Sleeping Beauty_ (1959).

Mystic Bayou – A world that has a dangerous swamp territory within the woods, as well as a large, beautiful city called New Orleans for contrast. Key characters are Tiana, Prince Naveen, Ray and Louis.

_**Note:**_ Some of you might remember that I had Shrek chapters in the original (because I wanted something that no one else had really done), well I decided to change that to stick with Disney (aside from my original ones) only worlds. Plus I really wanted to work in Princess and the Frog. I adored that movie. Too bad it looks like Disney isn't going to make anymore 2D ones. Rumor said that they were working on one called The Snow Queen (original by the author of the Little Mermaid), but newer rumors say that it's cancelled all together because 100 million during the initial release of Princess and the Frog wasn't enough for Disney. As much as I love them movies and everything, the company really pisses me off sometimes.

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	17. I'm In The Middle Of A Muddle

**Shadows of a Dream**

_Chapter Sixteen – I'm In The Middle Of A Muddle_

"Oh no."

Mickey's small voice, only used in a whisper, seemed to boom and echo around them. The quiet was almost deafening, and even the smallest sounds seemed to vibrate everything around them. None of them wanted to hear the sobs or cries of people in pain, but in a way, all of them almost wished that cries and pain were what they had stumbled upon. At least then, in the midst in the destruction, there was a chance that they could save the people. There was a chance that they could help. Now, after the battle was lost, there was nothing they could do.

Riku had never been to this particular world before. He didn't recognize the tall, white castle in the distance, and he didn't recognize the village. At the same time though, he felt as if he had seen this world one too many times.

He blamed that on the fact that he had seen this type of devastation in every world that they had gone to so far. Not once had they found a world untouched by their mysterious new enemy.

"Where are we?" Riku asked Mickey. "I've never been here."

"This world was home to a Princess of Heart," Mickey explained. "Cinderella."

"We should go to the castle," Donald suggested.

"Donald's right," Goofy agreed. "Maybe Cinderella managed to hide."

"It's worth a shot," Mickey said after a moment while staring up at Riku. The silver-haired young man could honestly say that he was tempted to be greedy. Just like in Agrabah, when they had been hoping that Princess Jasmine and Aladdin were unharmed, he knew that Cinderella was probably incapacitated somehow. He just wanted to leave to try and find his friends.

He knew he couldn't be selfish though, so he nodded his head and they set off towards the castle with weapons out, just in case.

If he could be honest with himself, Riku was sure he now understood what Sora had been feeling when he searched so desperately for him and Kairi before. Wanting to find your friends, but having the need to help others was difficult to deal with. He felt horrible looking back at the situation. So many times they had run into each other, raising Sora's hopes a bit, but then he just vanished. It had to have been ten times worse when he took Kairi away.

They walked through the town, and Riku couldn't help but stare as he saw the people that appeared to be made out of stone, like they had been carved from the very earth beneath their feet. It was unsettling, the thought that this was happening and they didn't have a clue as to who it was.

Mickey suddenly stopped in his tracks and looked around. Donald, Goofy and Riku were efficiently confused by his pause, and his insistence on shushing them when they tried to ask what was wrong. In all fairness though, Mickey had massive ears and the rest of them didn't.

"There's someone else here," Mickey said after a few moments. "They're not moving very fast." He quickly scurried off, moving away from the castle.

"Your majesty!" Donald called as he rushed after him.

"Wait for us!" Goofy yelled.

Eventually, Mickey came to a sudden stop. He was staring at something in front of him with a suspicious, yet worried look.

Riku, who wasn't really surprised that the small king could move so fast, eventually caught up, and what he saw startled him.

There was a person there, a real living person. She was walking away from them, so Riku had to focus to try and see her features. Aside from the fact that she was actually female, and had long hair, Riku couldn't make out that much.

Curiosity had always been his weakness, not Sora's like everyone thought it was. Sora was impulsive, he acted first and thought later, but he generally accepted things for what they were. This was a far cry from Riku, who analyzed everything curiously, trying to figure out what made it tick. It was this curiosity that caused him to rush towards the figure that was limping away from them, despite Mickey's calls for him to come back.

"Hey!" he called out as he caught up and reached out his hand to put it on her shoulder. His movement was cut off though as she whipped around quickly, and the great Riku Keimei soon found himself backed into the wall of one of the houses with a blade to his neck.

He blinked with surprise at what had happened, not comprehending how she moved so fast. Her deep brown eyes seemed to burn into him as she glared at him and snapped, "Who are you and what do you want?"

It was only then that he realized exactly what kind of blade was held to his throat. It was brightly coloured with bright reds, oranges and yellows, with a silver crescent moon on the hilt and a golden sun on the end of the blade.

A Keyblade.

"How do you have a Keyblade?" Riku demanded once he came to his senses. He was vaguely away there Mickey, Donald and Goofy were now hovering only a few feet away, waiting to see if their friend needed help or not.

She didn't answer. Instead, she glared at him and pressed the Keyblade closer to his throat. Annoyed with her lack of answers, Riku quickly summoned Way to Dawn and shoved her away from him, pointing his Keyblade at her.

The tension in the air was thick as the two glared at each other for a moment before she took a step forward, and her injuries seemed to get the better of her as she winced and stumbled to the ground. Her Keyblade vanished, and she held her leg in pain.

Riku took a step towards her, Keyblade still in hand. She looked up at him, her glare gone, replaced with pain and slight curiosity. Those were expressions he knew how to deal with.

"Who are you?"

"I asked you first," she replied.

There was a long silence until he said, "Riku."

"Ri—I think I've heard of you," she said. "I'm Midori."

"Midori, huh? How do you have a Keyblade?"

"My world fell to darkness, I woke up somewhere else with this thing," Midori replied with a shrug as she tried to stand up again. She stumbled a bit, and Riku's Keyblade vanished as he held her arm to steady her. "Thanks, Silver."

"What were you doing here?" Mickey asked, caution still thick in his voice.

"Trying to help Princess Cinderella and Charles," she explained. "I got here just as all of this was ending." She motioned to the stone people. "I tried to get to the castle as fast as I could, but it was too late."

"So Cinderella is—"

"Stone," she replied.

"How is this happening to people?" Goofy asked sadly.

"Yeah," Donald agreed. "Getting frozen is Blizzaga is one thing, but this is crazy."

"That's because it's not that type of magic," Midori replied. Everyone turned to look at her with interest. "It should have been obvious. The effects aren't just on the outside. When they change them, these people change from the inside out. I'm not exactly sure how they do it, all I know is that to get these powers, it was some type of ritualistic deal."

"How do you know all of this?" Mickey asked suspiciously.

She ignored the question and said, "Well, it's been nice talking to you, but I really have to get going." She tried to walk, but ended up stumbling into Riku instead. "Or maybe not."

"Where are you planning on going?" he asked her.

She eyed him before taking a step away from him and asking, "How do I know you're not the one who did this?"

"We didn't do this!" Donald raged angrily.

She grinned a bit and said, "I know, I just wanted to point out that there was an important question that everyone seemed to forget. Do you always just find a random person in a ruined world and assume that just because they say they're good, that they are? The only one who seems suspicious of me is the mouse there."

"He's King Mickey of Disney!" Donald growled. "Show some respect."

Her smug smirk vanished, a curious look passing over her face as she asked, "Really? I've heard of you."

Mickey didn't reply, instead, he was still eyeing her with suspicion.

"You have a Keyblade," Riku said suddenly. "A darkened heart can't use one."

"You sure?" Midori asked as she faced him. "I'm not sure his Highness agrees with you. Besides Silver, you reek of watered down darkness." Riku gave her a startled look, but she turned away from him to stare at Mickey.

Everyone else followed her gazed and stared at the mouse king, who shifted a bit and said, "People of darkness have been known to use the Keyblade before. Not many, but some. Where did you say you were trying to go again?"

"I wanted to go to Beast's Castle," she replied. "The only Princesses of Heart that are alright as of now are Snow White, Alice and I don't know about Belle."

"The Princesses of Heart? What do these enemies want with them?"

Midori snorted and said, "Crysita? She just wants them out of the way. Girl's not stupid though. She knows that they might come in handy later. Why kill them when you can simply freeze them in time?"

"Crysita? Who is that?" Mickey asked quickly.

Midori eyed each of them in turn and said, "You really don't know who you're dealing with, do you?" The silence that followed her question did more than just answer it. "So you're fighting blindly in the dark against an enemy who can see in the dark? Metaphorically, not realistically."

"Gawsh," Goofy said. "I never thought about it, but I guess we are."

"Why?"

It was a simply question, but at the same time, it was the biggest question that they could have been asked. Why do they fight enemies? Why do they care about worlds that aren't their own? It would have just been so much easier to protect one world then traveling to dozens of them.

"It's the right thing to do," Riku answered her sharply. She said nothing.

"Because we have to," Mickey finally said, startling Riku. He summoned his Keyblade and stared at it. "You must feel it too, Midori."

She looked away for a moment before Riku asked, "Why are you trying to save the Princesses?"

"It's not just them. Everyone," she said. "I just want to stop Crysita and the others before they can reach their goals, and judging by what I've seen in every world I've gone to…"

"You never told us who she was," Donald pointed out while tapping his webbed foot on the ground.

Midori hesitated for a moment before saying, "You give me a few potions, and I'll give you some information. How does that sound?"

"Alright," Mickey agreed quickly. "But you have to come aboard our ship. Talking in the open is a bad idea."

"Ship?" she asked hesitantly.

"Yeah," Goofy replied. "A gummi ship! It runs on smiles, so keep smiling."

Riku couldn't help but chuckle at the stunned look on the girl's face. She glared in his direction, and he chuckled a little louder before saying, "That was my reaction too."

"Riku, help her to the gummi ship and get her some potions. Donald, Goofy, I need to talk to you about the chicken you set loose earlier," Mickey said to them sternly.

"The chicken?" Midori asked, sound slightly afraid of what she was getting herself into.

"I don't even know," Riku replied as he reluctantly helped her limp towards the ship without another thought.

"What's wrong?" Donald asked Mickey. 'Chicken you set loose' was a code for them, meaning they had to stay behind and talk about something serious that they didn't want anybody else to hear.

"We're going to check Cinderella's Castle."

"What? Why?" Goofy asked. "Midori says she was already there."

"That's why," Mickey replied seriously. "I don't think she's on the bad guy's side, but we can't be sure just yet. We'll talk to her and find out more about her, then we'll judge. I just want to make sure she was telling the truth. I don't want to hear that Cinderella or Prince Charles was held captive or something like that for months, just because we believed a girl we don't really know."

His two friends nodded their heads at him with understanding before heading off towards the castle.

**VVVVVVVVV**

"So you're looking for your friends?" Midori asked as she sat across a table from Riku.

"Yeah," Riku answered. "I just—they just fell away. I haven't heard a thing about them since."

"That's a good thing though," she replied. "If you haven't heard anything, it means they're probably just covering their tracks good enough."

"Or they're already dead," he said glumly.

"You're certainly a ray of sunshine, aren't you?" Midori said with thick sarcasm. "Be positive. I know for a fact that they're not dead."

"How?" he asked quickly.

"Don't worry, I'll explain when King Mickey and…the duck and dog get back."

Riku smiled slightly and said, "Donald Duck and Goofy Goof."

"What, his last name isn't dog?"

"What would you call him? Dippy Dog?"

She shrugged a bit and looked around as the three creatures in question walked into.

"We dealt with the chicken," Mickey said to Riku, who gave him a confused look but shrugged it up. "You seemed to have healed up fast." The second part was said to Midori, whose injuries had quickly been cured by a strong potion.

Nodding her head, the forest-haired young woman said, "What would you like to know?"

"You mentioned someone named Crysita. Who is she?"

"She's the leader of you're enemies," Midori explained. "Vicious, cruel, and dangerous. She got her name from the ability that she seems to have. She can manipulate crystals, of all things. It's weird. She can surround your body with them, and as she smashes them away, you feel the pain like your arm is being smashed but it's not. So she can torture you for a long time, but you're not actually injured." She rubbed her arm subconsciously. "You'll know her when you see her. She tends to wear black and purple, her hair is purple and her eyes are brown. It's rumored that she's from a place called Forbidden World."

"What is she? A Nobody?" Donald asked.

"No. Not exactly. I don't know exactly what they are. They're almost like a partial Nobody by the fact that they're like another version of their original selves, but at the same time they at least have part of a heart inside of them if not a whole one," she said. "It's weird. It's like they're not real, but at the same time, they're not nothing either. Not dark, not light, not in between. I don't know what they are."

"Who are the others?" Riku asked her. "And what can they do?"

"Jorix is the youngest guy at sixteen. He's short, and I'm pretty sure he's clinically insane. He has bright blue hair and hazel eyes. He's dangerous though, and when he takes interest in something he becomes obsessed with it, and he'll do anything to get it. He can turn things into stone, and can manipulate stone into doing whatever he wants. All of them can do that with their own powers."

"So he's the one who attacked Castle of Dreams?" Goofy pondered aloud.

She nodded and said, "Then there's little Lilanti. She's the youngest, only fifteen, cute and innocent looking with her blonde hair and her purple eyes, but she's an awesome actress. She could easily make you believe that she switched sides when she really didn't. She tends to use vegetation. Plants (she added when she saw Goofy's confused look). She takes the energy from the trees and other things around her and uses it for her own means. She marks the places she attacks with people that looked like shaped hedges and many dead natural plants."

"Carverin is the really tall one in the group with black hair. He's very seriously most of the time, but he and Lilanti often butt-heads so they never work together. He takes the liquid from any source of water in the place he attacks, freezes it and somehow uses that to turn people into ice sculptures. So if there's a lot of snow around in a place where there shouldn't be, and not much water, then you know you're dealing with him."

"The last one," she continued. "Is Sarlio. He's mysterious, and I don't actually know much about him. He turns things into wood, but he doesn't seem to effect the woods around him when he does. Unless he wants to. Apparently he's some sort of pyro as well. He likes to burn down what he creates. Meaning when he's dealing with people, odds are they'll die instead of just being frozen in stone, crystal, ice or plants. They haven't been sending him to the Princesses' worlds for that very reason."

"How do you know all of this?" Riku asked suspiciously.

She stared at Riku for a moment before saying, "I was in one of the first worlds that was attacked. I tried to stop them, but they overpowered me. Five against one, it wasn't really fair. I was held captive by them, and believe me, they don't keep quiet about their plans. They don't care who knows what they're up to."

"What are they up to?" Mickey asked. "We've noticed that children seem to be going missing, and that they kill a lot of people as well as 'freeze' them, but none of that seems to add up to anything."

"A child's heart is born with some darkness in it, but not much. As they get older, even if they live perfectly happy lives, the darkness grows. They're trying to harvest young hearts that are malleable, to shape the power for their own purposes. They don't just get their abilities from anywhere," Midori explained. A disgusted look passed over her face. "What kind of person sacrifices a child's heart so that it will give them power?"

"Why?" Riku asked the question they were all wondering. "Why do they want to keep up their powers? What are they trying to do?"

"Crysita said something about needed the heart of the Keyblade Master and the heart of pure light that was tied with his to make him do what she wanted him to do," Midori said with a shrug. "I don't know who they are, but that's why I've been trying to get to the Princesses of Heart. I don't know who the seventh one is though. Actually, she's the sixth. Alice is the seventh, but that's just details." The last part was just thrown in as a small afterthought.

Riku's face visibly paled as he said, "Sora and Kairi, my friends. He's the Keyblade Master, and she's a Princess of Heart."

"I take it they're close?"

"They might as well share one heart."

She winced and said, "So they're the ones you can't find? I want to get back at Crysita as much as you do. Maybe…maybe we can help each other? I've been useless on my own, but I know more about them then you do. We can help each other."

"Sounds like a good idea," Riku said. Donald and Goofy nodded in agreement.

"What do they want Sora and Kairi for?" King Mickey asked, ignoring her statement.

"Something about opening a gate to the heart of Twilight's Destiny? I don't know, I've never heard of it before. I can't even find a mention of it anywhere," Midori said with a shrug.

No one noticed it at the time, and it wasn't until much later, while looking back, that Riku realized that Mickey had reacted to those words in more than confusion. There was a look of pure horror on his face for only a split second before it turned neutral.

He knew what Twilight's Destiny was, and he knew they needed to find Sora and Kairi before it was too late.

**Jiminy's Journal**

**Midori Naito** – A mysterious girl who can wield a Keyblade. She doesn't trust other people easily, and admittedly does everything that she does for her own gain. She uses a Keyblade called Twilight, and has a near perfect balance of darkness and light in her heart.

Castle of Dreams – A kingdom with large villages and a large, white castle. It's the home world of Cinderella and Prince Charles.

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	18. Dig A Little Deeper

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Seventeen – Dig A Little Deeper_

Tiana and Naveen hopped ahead of everyone else, keeping up with Mama Odie, while Sora and Kairi chose to stay on Louis' head for the remainder of the walk. Louis, they found, was a pretty big chatterbox and enjoyed asking them all sorts of questions. He was really nice though, and Sora was proud to say that he could add 'alligator' onto his list of friends.

Louis wasn't the only person who couldn't stop talking. Tiana was trying to explain what happened to Mama Odie, but she was constantly interrupted and ignored, much to Naveen's amusement.

"Are you sure this is the right person?" Sora whispered to Louis and Ray as they followed the small, old woman up to her rather interesting house. They all jumped when Mama Odie suddenly yelled, "Juju!" A second later, a snake appeared.

Kairi grunted in disgust as the old woman kissed the snake, and she looked away. Louis seemed to agree with her and made a loud gagging sound.

They hopped over to Mama Odie as she sat down on a chair, the snake slithering behind it as she stretched out her feet. The four frogs hopped onto the arm of the chair and Tiana started speaking, "Mama Odie, we don't want to take up too much of your time but—"

"Ya'll want some candy?" she interrupted, holding out a handful of stuff she pulled out of her pocket. Naveen looked less than impressed while Sora just watched a moth fly away with disdain. They all denied any candy.

"Well now, that's too bad, it's a special candy (They all look at each other oddly). Woulda turned ya'll human."

Tiana and Naveen started to protest loudly as she ate the candy, and she laughed hysterically, proclaiming that she was simply joking.

"How on earth did you know that we wanted to turn back into human?" Kairi asked, but she never got an answer as Mama Odie started snoring.

"Umm…Mama Odie?" Sora asked hesitantly as he poked her in the face.

She jumped up quickly, startling all of them as she made her way around the room. "Juju! Why didn't you tell me my gumbo was burning?" she yelled at her snake.

Louis shot Ray an odd look and said, "You sure this is the right blind voodoo lady who lives in a boat in a tree in the bayou?"

"Pretty sure," Ray answered, and Sora couldn't help but shoot him a rather disdained look.

Tiana and Naveen tried talking to her again, but she was distracted by her burning bathtub ("Why is she cooking in a bathtub?" Kairi asked.) of gumbo.

"Mama Odie, we—" Tiana was cut off as Mama Odie shoved a spoonful of the concoction in her mouth.

"Well?" Mama Odie asked her.

Tiana winced a bit and quickly said, "Hit it with a couple of shots of Tabasco and it'll be the bee's knees. Now we—"

"Juju!" Mama Odie yelled and the snake appeared and poured a few shots of Tabasco sauce into the mix. Mama Odie tried it and laughed happily while saying, "That has some zang to it!"

Once she calmed down, she turned to all four frogs and said, "Now ya'll figure out what it is you need?"

"It's like you said Mama Odie, we need to be human again," Tiana replied.

"Ha!" she yelled at them all, and Kairi almost stumbled into the boiling mixture from surprise while Tiana jumped backwards. Sora and Naveen managed to grab them though. "Ya'll want to be human, but you two especially (she pointed at Tiana and Naveen) are blind to what ya need."

"What we want and what we need is the same thing, yes?" Naveen asked while glancing back at his female counterpart. She nodded in agreement.

Mama Odie smacked him on the head with her cane, reminding Sora strongly of Rafiki for a moment, and said, "No! Ya got a dig a little deeper than that." She motioned to Naveen and said, "Prince Froggy is a rich little boy, you wanna be rich again. That ain't gonna make you happy now, did it make you happen then?" Naveen grinned at her broadly and nodded his head, but stumbled back and said, "No!"

She motioned for him to move a bit closer to her, and Sora watched with amazement as gold coins started piling up around the other male frog. "Money ain't got not soul, money ain't go no heart. All you need is some self-control, make yourself a brand new start." She subtly motioned towards Tiana, but Kairi alone caught the motion. "You gotta dig a little deeper. Can't tell you what you'll find, maybe love will grant you peace of mind. Dig a little deeper and you'll know."

Kairi grinned a bit as she saw Naveen stare at Tiana oddly before grinning a bit, a look of understanding on his face.

Mama Odie then turned to Sora and Kairi and said, "You two, you fight for what is right. Connected by something that's much more powerful than any type of magic I got. You both know what you want, and you both have what you need." Sora smiled warmly at Kairi as the old lady said this. Kairi returned the look, squeezing his hand tightly. Mama Odie moved away from Tiana and Naveen, motioning for Sora and Kairi to follow her. "I'll give ya a hint, don't tell ya friends. A kiss from a Princess will turn ya'll back again."

"A Princess? Wait, so you mean I could just kiss Kairi, and we'd be normal again?" Sora asked her curiously.

"The two of you, yes. The spell on you is different then the dark spell on Prince and Miss Froggy over there. If Prince Froggy was to kiss ya though, they'd become human too. What you both need to do, is to see what would really be the better choice."

Sora looked back at Naveen and Tiana, as did Kairi. They glanced at each other before smiling. Kairi nodded and said, "We're better off as frogs, at least for them."

"So you know what ya need to do," Mama Odie said with a nod and a smile. "Help them through, and maybe what ya got in you, they'll see it too." They nodded in understanding, knowing exactly what she meant. They could have turned themselves back into humans, but sometimes there were more important things than what they wanted.

Kairi later admitted that she always wanted to play matchmaker, and that was her chance.

Mama Odie moved over to Tiana next and asked, "Miss Froggy, might I have a word?" Tiana nodded and jumped into her hand. "You's a hard one, that's what I heard."

Mama Odie walked over to her tub of gumbo that almost looked like it was glowing and said, "Your daddy was a loving man, family through and through. You your daddy's daughter; what he had in him you got in you." They walked up to the top of the tree, Mama Odie whispering something to Tiana. When they got to the top, even Naveen had to stare in awe. From up here, the bayou looked practically magical. Although they could have been Mama Odie's doing.

"Now Miss Froggy, do ya understand what ya need?" the old woman asked.

Kairi let out a groan and Sora shook his head as Tiana said, "Yes. I need to dig a little deeper and work _even_ harder to open my restaurant."

The two Keyblade Bearers weren't the only ones disappointed in her answer. Ray and Louis shook their heads, while Mama Odie let out a sigh of disappointment as she started walking back down the thick tree branches and to her house. "Well since you're so set on being human again, there's only one thing to do. Prince Froggy has to kiss a princess."

"Yes, but where do we find one?" Naveen asked them curiously. Sora and Kairi kept silent.

If Sora could be honest, the sheer thought of someone else kissing Kairi made his blood boil. He'd be damned if Naveen's froggy lips got anywhere near Kairi's. He was pretty sure that he's have to resort to using the Keyblade. Kairi, as if sensing this, giggled and hugged him. She wanted nothing more than to kiss him, but she knew that she couldn't. Not until Tiana figured out what she wanted too.

Mama Odie returned to her boiling pot of gumbo, leaning over it and saying, "Gumbo, gumbo in the pot, we need a princess, whatcha got?" A girl appeared with deep red hair and indigo eyes, and Sora realized quickly that they were staring at Kairi in her human form.

"Who is she?" Tiana asked curiously.

"I do not know, but she is cute. I would not mind kissing her," Naveen replied. Kairi tightened her grip on Sora as he switched a bit, not liking the way Naveen was looking at her human form.

"Not a clue," Mama Odie said quickly. "Next!" They all jumped as she yelled, and the image began changing. Instead, a sleeping young woman with blonde hair was in front of them.

"Lotte? But she's not a Princess," Tiana argued.

"Hush up and look at the gumbo," Mama Odie shot back, and they all looked back at the glowing mixture. They watched as the door to her room flew open, a man appearing at the door. The woman, who Tiana later identified as her friend Charlotte La Bouff woke up and looked at him. They watched as the man suddenly presented her with a shimmering tiara and she seemed overly estatic.

"That's right! Big daddy is King of the Mardi Gras parade. So that makes Lotte—"

"A Princess," Kairi finished for her.

"Does that count?" Naveen asked curiously.

"Yes it does," Mama Odie replied. "But only til midnight, when Mardi Gras is over. Ya only got til then to get her to kiss ya. Once she does, you both turn human."

"Midnight doesn't give us very much time," Sora said thoughtfully.

"What about me Mama?" Louis interrupted. "I wanna be human too so I can play jazz with the big boys! I want fingers and toes and a belly button—not the type that sticks out but goes in-"

"You, hush up," Mama Odie ordered as she grabbed his mouth to keep him quickly. "Ya dig a little deeper and ya'll find what ya need. Now get out of here. Shoo. You have a lot of swimming to do." Sora, Kairi, Tiana, Naveen, and Ray left the boat-house willingly, but Louis struggled a bit.

"Wait!" he called out, and Mama Odie stopped pushing him while everyone else looked back at him curiously. He grinned and said, "I got a better idea."

**VVVVVVVVVVVV**

"This isn't the first time I've snuck onto a boat," Sora whispered to Kairi.

"It'll be easy for us to hide," she agreed. "But what about him?" She asked while motioning to Louis. Sora shrugged in reply, and there were a few moments of confusion as some musicians in animal costumes mistook Louis as a person dressed up, inviting him to play with them. The alligator happily followed them, excited to be playing with a real jazz band.

Ray quickly follower eager to watch their friend play. Tiana started to follow, before looking back and saying, "You coming Naveen?"

"I'll catch up with you later," Naveen replied with a small wave.

Tiana nodded her head before turning to the other two frogs and asking, "How about you guys?"

Kairi gave Sora a pointed look and he said, "Nah, I'll come later. Gotta talk to Naveen about something."

"I'll come," Kairi said to her and the two female frogs quickly hopped away.

Once Sora was sure that they were out of earshot, he turned and gave Naveen a knowing look.

"What?"

"You like her."

Naveen just smiled as he stared at something on the floor. He picked up some discarded wires and pearls, giving them a thoughtful look before turning to Sora and saying, "Can you help me with something?"

"That's what I'm here for," Sora replied encouragingly, and hopped over to listen to what the Frog Prince had to say.

Later, when Sora found Kairi and they were sitting alone at one end of the large riverboat, he explained to her what Naveen was going to do. Her first instinct was to spy on them, but Sora managed to convince her to give them some privacy. There was nothing more he hated than the thought of someone spying on someone else's private moments.

"Besides," Sora said with a sly smile as he pulled her close to him, "it means we can get some alone time."

She pouted a bit and said, "I wish I could kiss you."

"Not yet," Sora replied, "but after Tiana and Naveen become human, well—I don't think there's a rule saying I can pull you behind a tree or building and have my way with you."

Kairi giggled at him and asked, "Promise?"

Sora hugged her tightly and said, "Promise!"

They both looked around when they heard a loud crash and a yell of 'Tiana', followed by some laughter, but neither of them went to see what was happening. The teenage girl in Kairi couldn't wait for the gossip though.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

The Heartless seemed almost excited about something. Facilier remembered what Maleficent had told him, how they naturally tried to swarm the Keyblade whenever possible because it was the one thing that could truly destroy them, and they wanted to get rid of it. He knew by their reactions that the Keyblade Master must have been close by.

"Oh Prince Naveen!" they heard Charlotte yell from outside. "Hurry up! You don't want to be late for our wedding."

"Just one moment darling!" Lawrence called out to her. "I just need to finish getting ready."

"Alright," she called back. He heard her walk away while yelling, "Daddy! Start the car!"

"Oh no, oh no," Lawrence muttered. "What do I do?"

"What do you do?" Facilier snapped at him. "I'm up over my head in debt and without the froggy prince I-" The two men were distracted as a Heartless appeared, holding a struggling Prince Naveen.

"Alright! We're back in business!" Facilier said as he held out the talisman.

"Lawrence?" Naveen asked, surprise to see his caretaker with the man who had caused him so many problems. "How could you?"

"How—you always got what you wanted! You always walked over me like I was a dirty old rug. No more though," Lawrence snapped at the frog.

"This will only hurt a bit," Facilier said as bought the sharp, carved teeth of the talisman closer to Naveen.

**VVVVVVVV**

"Ray! Sora! Kairi!" Tiana called out to them as the boat finally docked in New Orleans. "Have you seen Naveen?"

Both of the Keyblade Bearers looked confused, and Ray eagerly asked, "Where the ring at?"

"What ring?" Tiana asked with a confused look on her face. Kairi turned and shot Sora an odd look, and he just shrugged in reply. As far as he knew, Naveen was going to give it to her.

"Well if he didn't say anything, you ain't getting nuttin' out of me. Ray's sealed up as tight as a drum," the firefly proclaimed as he turned away, crossing his arms.

"Somehow, I highly doubt that," Kairi muttered under her breath.

"Ray," Tiana said slowly and accusingly.

Before either Sora or Kairi could stop him, the firefly whipped around and said, "Alright! He not gon marry Miss. Carlotte, he gon marry you as soon as he get himself a kiss and you turn human and then he gon find a job and get you that restaurant and—" Ray suddenly saw the glare Kairi was giving him. "I said too much, didn't I?"

"You said just enough," Tiana exclaimed happily as she hugged him as much as she could hug something that fit into her webbed hands. She turned to Sora and Kairi and said, "You knew?"

"Yeah," Sora replied. "He told me on the boat and I tried to help him set up your dinner, but he did most of it."

She laughed happily as she started hopping through the legs of the people, her friends following her closely. Kairi couldn't help but grin broadly as she heard Tiana prattle on, but the noise made it impossible for her to keep up.

"What are we looking for again?" Sora called out to her.

"You just keep your eyes out for the biggest, gaudiest float with a Princess about to kiss herself a—" Tiana cut herself off as she hopped onto a street sign, a horrified look passing over her face. "—A frog."

Sora and Kairi hopped up beside her, and gaped at what they saw. Atop a large wedding cake stood the young woman with blonde hair that they had seen in the gumbo, and a tall young man with a crown on his head. While neither Sora nor Kairi had seen the man before, they knew from Tiana's reaction that he had to be Naveen.

"Oh no, this can't be right darlin'," Ray said as he hovered in the air.

"And how could you still be a frog?" Sora asked before looking around, but she was gone.

"You guys go see what the hell is going on," Kairi said while motioning towards the float. "I'll try to find Tiana." Sora nodded in agreement, and he and Ray quickly rushed away.

**VVVVVVV**

Kairi ignored the distant crash of thunder in the sky as she made her way through the graveyard. She finally found Tiana, who was sitting by a dark tombstone while hugging herself.

"I know what we saw with our eyes, but if we go back, I'm sure we'll find out that it was all a big misunderstanding," Kairi said to her softly.

"Just because you wish for something doesn't make it true," Tiana snapped at her. She didn't turn around to face Kairi though, instead choosing to hide away in the shadows. "Just because you and Sora seemed to have these perfect little fairytale lives that got messed up once you got here doesn't mean we'll all get our happy endings!"

If Kairi had been human at that moment, her face probably would have turned red from anger as she glared at Tiana before exclaiming, "Fairytale lives? You have no idea what we've been through and what we'll continue to go through once we leave here! Stop feeling sorry for yourself! You'd be surprised by how powerful a wish really is."

"On what? A star?" Tiana snapped while turning to face her. "It's just a ball of gas burning a billion of miles away! Wake up Kairi! The only way you really get what you want in life is hard work. You should realize that before your fairytale ends too."

Kairi was fuming as the other frog started hopping away. She wasn't about to let her just walk away though, not yet. She just hoped that Sora and Ray could figure out what was going on with Naveen.

**VVVVVVV**

Sora climbed up the side of the large cake, trying not to be seen by all of the spectators. While he was almost positive that it was this Shadow Man who was behind the Heartless in this world, he wasn't sure exactly what he looked like. Because of this, he figured it was probably best to just stay out of sight from everyone.

Ray managed to fly up quicker, flying around Naveen's head and whispering, "Cap, what you doing son?"

The Prince yelled in surprise and shooed the bug away, and as Sora managed to get to the top of the cake, he noticed the Prince stepping on a tongue coming from a box. Confusion passed through him as he pointed it out to Ray. He would be seen if he went over, but Ray would be nearly undetectable.

"Is that you Cap?" Ray asked the box. Sora could hear a yell from the inside, but he was too far away to hear what was being said. He watched as Ray flew into the box, and the lid flew open as the real Naveen jumped out.

Naveen jumped at the fake prince, grabbing at the amulet around his neck. As the man stumbled, Sora quickly shot out, tripping him and causing him to fall to the ground. He then watched as the fake prince grabbed Naveen and rushed towards the doors of the church they were beside. Sora moved as fast as his green legs allowed him too, jumping through he doors before they closed.

"What are you doing?" Sora heard a voice yell as a tall, thin man appeared from the shadows. "Get back on that wedding cake!"

Naveen quickly used the distraction to grab the amulet, and once it was removed the fake prince turned into a fat little man. He quickly tossed the amulet and yelled, "Sora, run!"

"So, you must be the Keyblade Master" Dr. Facilier, the Shadow Man, asked slowly. "Maleficent warned me about you and how much trouble you would cause me."

"She would be behind this," Sora muttered. He could hear Ray working on opening the door behind him, and just as the Shadow Man made to jump at him, Ray managed to get the door open and he made a break for it.

"Heartless!" The Shadow Man yelled, and several Neoshadows appeared. They sunk into the ground, and gave chase to the frog and firefly.

"Sora? Ray?" Louis called out as they rushed by. He watched the Heartless, and after a pause, he followed them. It was only after he got down on all fours and started snarling that the people realized that he was a real alligator.

**VVVVVVVV**

"Tiana! Kairi!"

Both of the female frogs turned from their argument as Sora and Ray rushed towards them. Sora held out the amulet and Ray said, "This proves what we thought we saw ain't what we thought we saw."

"What is that?" Kairi asked, noticing that the liquid inside looked unnervingly like blood.

"A voodoo thing, I'm guessing," Sora said while casting a look at Ray.

"It is. That Shadow Man has been using it for—" Ray was cut off as several Neoshadows appeared around them.

"Tiana!" Sora yelled. "We'll handle this, you run!"

"Right, you can't let the Shadow Man get it!" Ray agreed. He flew at the Neoshadows, and surprisingly enough, his light seemed to affect them a bit. That only proved that he wasn't a normal little bug.

Sora and Kairi both summoned their Keyblades and launched themselves at the Heartless while Tiana took the amulet and hopped away as fast as she could.

Sheer determination pushed them as they fought the Neoshadows. It was awkward to move in their frog bodies, especially for Kairi, who had only transformed into a car before this. Sora was able to adapt easier, since this was a lot simpler to figure out than fighting with a Keyblade in his mouth or wrapped around his tail. They managed to defeat all but one of the Neoshadows around them, but Sora had a strong feeling that the group they had been dealing with weren't the only Heartless there.

"Some went that way!" Ray called out to them, hovering above the one Neoshadow left. "Get them. I'll handle this one!" They nodded and quickly started following the Heartless, not noticing that the Shadow Man had appeared on the scene.

**VVVVVVV**

Tiana hopped madly, but the Heartless were catching up with her. Sora and Kairi had bumped into her, and were now trying to beat away the dark creatures before they could get to Tiana, but soon they all found themselves trapped between a stonewall and one too many Heartless. A second later, a shadow of a man appeared on the wall behind them. Tiana stared at it for a moment before backing away from it, knowing that the Shadow Man was close.

"Call them back!" Tiana yelled as Sora and Kairi tried to ward the ever-growing amount of Heartless off. She held the amulet in the air and added, "Or I'll smash this!"

Though they couldn't see him yet, the Shadow Man's face contorted into panic for a moment before he suddenly took some pink dust out of his pouch and blew it at them. The next thing they knew, Tiana, Sora and Kairi were all human again.

Tiana stared at the true forms of her two new friends with surprise, doing a double take when she saw Kairi, recognizing her as the girl from the gumbo, before the area around them suddenly changed. Sora and Kairi found themselves sitting in comfortable chairs in a beautiful restaurant, and Tiana looked around in awe.

"Now isn't this a whole lot better than hopping around the bayou for the rest of your life?" the shadow man asked as he leaned back on one of the chairs, sipping at a glass of Champaign. He glanced at Sora and Kairi and added, "Or running around the universe, fighting an unbeatable war?"

Kairi glanced down at the shimmering dress she was wearing before looking at the romantic atmosphere around her and Sora. Sitting in such a beautiful place with only her boyfriend and no universe to save was something she wanted desperately, but she knew it was wrong.

"Gotta hand it to you Tiana," Facilier said as he stood up and walked towards her. "When you dream, you dream big. All you have to do to make this a reality is to hand over that little talisman of mine."

"No," she replied while shaking her head. "This is not right."

"She's right," Sora agreed as he stood up. "Nothing you can give her would ever be real."

"Ignore the hedgehog head," Facilier said as he waved his hand at Sora and Kairi. They both gasped as they were engulfed by smoke before turning back into frogs. "What do they know about you anyway?" The walls around them seemed to vanish and instead they were in a place where there were a lot of small houses close together. "I know that all you want is to give your poor daddy his dream. He was a hard working man, sometimes working double, triple shifts, but he never let on how tired he was."

Sora and Kairi watched a man climb out of a truck and what exhaustedly towards the house, sitting down on a chair once he got inside. He put a smile on his face though when a little girl ran over to him happy.

"You can give him his dream Tiana. A dream that never amounted to more than some people on the steps and a broken up, old gumbo pot," Shadow Man whispered watching as she started to lower her hand with the talisman in it towards his hand. "You're almost there."

"You're right," Tiana said after a moment. "My daddy never did get what he wanted." She watched as her mother and father hugged while keeping her younger self in between them. "But he had what he needed." She whipped around and glared at him. "He had love. He never lost sight of what was important! Neither have Sora and Kairi! Neither will I!" She went to toss the amulet to the ground, but one of the Heartless sprang from the shadows and grabbed it, bringing it over to a laughing Facilier.

"Ya'll should have taken my deal," he said as he blew some purple dust at her, causing her to turn back into a frog. Facilier used his walking stick (That seemed to appear out of nowhere) to pin Tiana to the ground. "Now you will spend the rest of your life being a slimy, little frog."

"It's mucus!" Kairi yelled as she and Sora jumped at Facilier. He reared back, trying to get them off of him. In a quick movement, Tiana used her sticky tongue to grab the amulet, and she smashed it onto the ground.

"No!" Facilier yelled in horror. The Heartless all turned to him, advancing on him. He had failed his mission, and now his friends on the other side had revoked his power over the Heartless.

Sora quickly pulled Tiana and Kairi out of the way and they watched as the Heartless jumped at the terrified Facilier, dragging him towards a huge tombstone that seemed to appear out of nowhere. The mask-like tombstone opened its mouth, and Facilier yelled and struggled as the Heartless pulled him towards it and into the darkness. He let out a yell, and there was a blast of light before everything went calm.

"He was controlling them, wasn't he?" Kairi asked after a moment of stunned silence.

Sora nodded his head and said, "They probably wanted to rip right into him apart the entire time though. Heartless are loyal to those with the most power."

The loud chiming of a clock quickly brought the three of them out of their shock as they realized that they were still frogs, and there was very little time left until midnight.

"Hurry," Sora said quickly, "we have to get you to Naveen before he kisses that crazy Charlotte girl."

Tiana chuckled at the description and all three of them quickly made their way back towards the church.

**VVVVVVVVVVVV**

The three frogs got to the cathedral in time to see the short, fat man being shoved into a police car, despite his protesting. None of them knew who he was, and none of them particularly cared. What Tiana cared about was the blonde girl decked out in an elaborate pink dress sitting on the steps of the cathedral with a familiar frog.

"Yeah, more or less," they heard Naveen say to Charlotte as they approached. "But remember, you must give Tiana all the money she requires for her restaurant, because Tiana is—she is my Evangeline."

Kairi let out a small 'aww' as she and Sora stopped. Tiana glanced back at them, and they both motioned for her to keep going.

She saw Charlotte about to kiss him and yelled, "Wait! Don't do this!"

"Tiana!" Naveen exclaimed, obviously surprised.

"Tiana?" Charlotte repeated, confusion passing over her face as she look at the other frog. Naveen hopped out of the woman's hands and over to Tiana.

"Don't do this," Tiana repeated.

"We're running out of time," Naveen said to her. "It's the only way to get your dream."

"My dream?" Tiana asked him as he turned away from her. "My dream wouldn't be complete without you in it." She gave a nervous little laugh before looking back at Sora and Kairi.

"Go on," Kairi whispered, and Sora gave her the thumbs up.

Tiana turned back and said, "I love you, Naveen."

He glanced back at her, and Charlotte let out a small sniff as tears built up in her eyes. She laughed a bit and said, "All my life I read about true love and fairytales, and Tia, you found it. I'll kiss him for you, no marriage required." She quickly grabbed Naveen, but as she did, the clock chimed loudly above them Charlotte panicked and kissed the frog anyway, but it didn't do anything.

"Sora," Kairi whispered to him. Charlotte wasn't a Princess anymore, her reign ending with Mardi Gras, but she was. Sora glanced at her, knowing what she was thinking but he shook his head.

"No Iri, this is something they have to work through. It'll be alright in the end."

"How do you know?" she muttered. "Besides, Tiana knows that I'm a princess now."

"First off, let me be the possessive boyfriend and say that I'll be damned if Naveen's lips get anywhere close to yours. I'll probably have to feed him to some gators," Sora said with a bit of a growl.

Kairi giggled and said, "Someone has some jealousy issues."

"I'm not letting another guy kiss you," he insisted. Sora then winked at her and said, "It's obvious that everything will be fine, if you think about it."

Kairi was about to reply, when they all heard Louis yell, "Tiana! Naveen! Sora! Kairi!"

"Louis?" all four of them said and quickly made their way towards the alligator.

"Shadow Man," Louis said with a sob. "Poor Ray's hurt awful bad."

"Oh no," Kairi whispered when she saw Ray lying in Louis' hands, his light only glowing a little as Louis set him down on a feather.

"Hey Cher," Ray said weakly as he opened his eyes. "How come you still like that?"

"We're staying frogs, Ray," Tiana answered.

"And we're staying together," Naveen added as he wrapped an arm around Tiana.

"I like that very much," Ray said as he looked back up at the sky. "And you two, you best not be strangers. Ya are one of us now."

Kairi let out a small sob and Sora nodded his head, holding her close.

Ray looked up at the sky and said, "Evangeline would like that too." With that, his small eyes closed.

**VVVVVVVVVVVV**

Ray's funeral, was a silent, sad affair at first, but then had turned into something unexpected. Sora, although he knew each new star was another world, sun, moon, or even an asteroid, couldn't explain how a second star appeared with the one known as Evageline at that moment. The cheers of the fireflies, and the smiles from Louis, Tiana and Naveen had been enough for him though. If it gave them hope, then the new star could represent Ray with Evangeline. He wasn't going to be the one to correct them.

Tiana had been too upset with what occurred to really remember that Kairi was a Princess that could solve their problem, and Sora kept her from telling them for reasons that she still couldn't figure out.

Roxas and Namine suggested that they leave, pointing out that they would return to their human forms once they left anyway, but Sora and Kairi decided to stay a little longer. Naveen and Tiana had asked them to stay for their wedding, which would be presided over by Mama Odie.

"It's beautiful," Kairi whispered as she stood next to Sora, her eyes on Tiana and Naveen. "I want an outdoor wedding. On the beach."

"Oh?" Sora muttered while looking down at her, a small blush appeared on his still green skin.

She nodded her head, but before she could say anything else on the subject, Mama Odie looked at them and nodded her head. Sora quickly pulled Kairi back behind all of the animals that were watching the frog's wedding, as to not pull attention away from the two getting married.

Kairi shot him a confused look before he swooped down and kissed her. An odd sensation passed over her body, and when she opened her eyes again she was looking at the Sora she had known all her life, with his goofy grin and his spiky hair. She giggled a bit as she ran her hand through his hair and whispered, "Why now?"

"Still haven't pieced it together?" Sora asked her as he hugged her close, turning so they could both watch Naveen and Tiana. "Naveen's a prince and if Tiana marries him…"

"Oh," Kairi whispered, feeling slightly ashamed on not figuring it out sooner.

Mama Odie grinned broadly as she said, "So by the power vested in me, I now pronounce ya'll Frog and Wife. Get to it hop-along. Give your lovely bride some sugar." She then moved away from them and motioned for Sora and Kairi to come over beside her.

Louis glanced around at them, his mouth falling open slightly. Sora just grinned at him before turning his attention back to the two frogs as they kissed, and were engulfed in light.

"This gone be good," Mama Odie cried out happily as she clapped. They all shielded their eyes, and once the light died down, instead of two frogs, there were two people standing in front of them.

As Tiana and Naveen backed away from each other and opened their eyes, they both jerked away from each other with startled expressions. Mama Odie laughed and they turned to face her, eyes landing on Sora and Kairi.

"Did we change you back to?" Naveen asked.

Kairi grinned with a guilty smile and said, "Not exactly. You see, I'm the Princess of a place called Radiant Garden."

"That's right, you were that girl that was in the gumbo at first. Then why…" Tiana trailed off, a grin appearing on her face. "Thank you."

"Your welcome," Sora said with a grin. "We have to go now though."

"We'll come back to visit," Kairi added, "and we'll be sure to stop by your restaurant, Tiana."

"We'd like that," Tiana replied.

"Thank you for everything you've done for us," Naveen said with a teasing smile, "and be good."

Sora laughed as he started to lead Kairi away into the forest where Roxas and Namine could open a portal. Staying to help the people in that world hadn't been the most useful thing to do pertaining to their new enemy, but they knew for sure that Maleficent was up to something again, recruiting others in worlds to control the Heartless for her. It wasn't much to go on, but still, that bit of knowledge was better than nothing.

**Author's Note**

Hmm…I know this is a rewrite, so I don't expect all of the reviews in the world, but a few would be nice. Otherwise I might just wait until the end of the summer and post all of the chapters at once. I don't really want to do that, but I don't see a reason not to.

Here's what I'll do, for anyone who does review, I'll give them a bit of a spoiler, but I'll have to send that via email. Oh, and it won't be a spoiler for this fic so there will be some confusion with it, but…well…those who review will understand.

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	19. Memories

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Eighteen – Memories_

Naminé had a lot of time to think. Sure, she could communicate with Roxas as long as Sora was close to Kairi, she could talk to Kairi, sometimes she could even talk to Sora, and she could even leave her Other's body for a while, but for the most part, she resided alone within Kairi's heart. It wasn't that she wanted to complain about that, because she could truly feel now and that was something she would never give up, but sometimes she wished that she could have left Kairi's body again to become her own person, even if it was without a heart. She missed being able to draw pictures, to be able to breathe the air on her own, to be able to do things like taste food or feel a bit of her own pain. Then again, she had never really been free as a Nobody. Always locked away by those who feared her, but wanted to use her powers for their own gain.

Sure, she could feel everything Kairi felt, see what Kairi saw, and experience the same things, but she was still her own person locked inside of another person. Sometimes Naminé wondered if that was really where she belonged, but then she realized how stupid of a question that really was. She was Kairi, a piece of the redhead that was never supposed to exist on her own; this was definition where she belonged.

Still, despite being locked inside Kairi's heart, there were times that she noticed things that the redhead didn't. Now was one of those times. Sora and Kairi were walking through a corridor of darkness, and something didn't feel right. It was only when Sora and Kairi stumbled through a portal that was on the floor instead of in front of them that Naminé realized she had opened the corridor wrong.

She vaguely heard Roxas' yell of surprise as they started to fall. It was weird, because whenever Sora spoke, she could always hear Roxas talking in the background. They were usually the same words that Sora spoke, like they were speaking in unison, but when Roxas actually wanted to speak on his own, he could. She was sure that Sora and Kairi couldn't hear it, and she was also sure that Roxas experienced the same thing when listening to Kairi talk.

As they fell, Roxas heard Naminé's scream of sheer surprise. He was aware that Sora had pulled Kairi as close to him as he possibly could as they tumbled through the darkness, but no matter how close Sora held her, it wouldn't matter once they hit the ground with the speed that they were falling at.

Although Sora had his eyes closed tightly, Roxas managed to force him to open them to look around. The bitterly cold air of the darkness stung as it whipped passed them, but that was when Roxas noticed something weird. They weren't in pure darkness. He could see shapes just behind the darkness, as if hidden by a translucent, black veil.

He saw himself sitting on top of a clock tower with Hayner, Pence and Olette, eating ice cream. He saw himself approach the Organization for the first time. Axel sitting with him atop of the same tower eating ice cream, both laughing. Then he saw something odd: it was Axel and him again, just like the previous image that they had passed, but this time there was a third person, a girl. Roxas couldn't get a good look at her though, because they passed the image too fast.

He saw her again though, pointing her weapon at him. He saw her fighting with Axel. He saw her fighting with him. Then he saw her vanish within his arms, followed by him fighting Riku.

The images changed quickly, and he looked like he did when he first appeared in Twilight Town in the same clothes that he was wearing now. He saw the first time he had met Naminé, Nobodies attacking Seifer, Fuu and Rai, him falling from the clock tower while communicating with Kairi. The last thing he saw before he and Sora finally passed out was an image of Hayner, Olette, Pence and himself sitting on the clock tower while holding their crystals up towards the sun.

Then everything went black.

**VVVVVVVV**

"I hate school."

Olette rolled her deep green eyes at Hayner as they walked along the cobblestone streets of Twilight Town. She was wearing her school uniform, consisting of a dark red plaid skirt, a white button up shirt and a tie was matched her skirt. Likewise, Hayner and Pence, who were walking a few feet behind her, wore their uniforms consisting of solid, dark red pants, white button up shirts and a tie like her own.

"Come on, it's not that bad," Pence said to him while nudging him in the stomach.

"For you maybe," Hayner groaned. "The teachers all love you. They think I'm the antichrist or something."

Olette giggled and said, "I'm sure they don't think you're the antichrist Hayner."

"Shows what you know," he replied.

Once again, Olette rolled her eyes, but this time Pence made the same motion. Their blond friend always complained about school, and he did it as dramatically as possible. Then again, it wouldn't be Hayner if he wasn't dramatic.

"So, what do you guys want to do this weekend?" Pence asked them after a moment of silence. "I mean, next week is our last week of school so we should do something fun this weekend."

"Sleep," Hayner replied instantaneously with a yawn.

"I was thinking that we could all hang out," Olette said with a shrug. "But that's not far off from what we always do. You know, hang around, eat sea-salt ice cream, and other things like that."

"Well, what else is there to do?" Hayner asked. "There are no struggle tournaments until summer, nothing interesting is happening at all, and even Seifer and his gang have been leaving us alone. It's like the entire world decided 'hey, lets be as boring as possible'!"

"Well, we could always go to Sunset Hill," Olette suggested.

"Yeah, or maybe actually explore more of that creepy mansion. I mean, that basement was pretty sketchy," Pence said.

"More like a mad scientist's laboratory," Hayner said. "But I dunno, I just wish something exciting would happen."

That was when a loud, echoing bang reached their ears. All of them stopped walking as they stared down the alleyway that led to the Usual Spot. They all stared for a moment, waiting to see if they would hear another sound, but nothing came.

"What was that?" Pence asked.

"I don't know, but lets go check it out!" Hayner proclaimed excitedly as he shot forward, leading the way. Even if it was just a rat knocking over a garbage can, it would certainly at least give them a bit of excitement for a few minutes.

**VVVVVVVV**

Sora groaned and opened his eyes. The light poured into his eyes, and he squeezed them shut again. He was sure that he was going to give himself brain damage if he continued to fall on his head. The ache that passed through it was almost unbearable.

His eyes flew opened as he remembered what had happened. He didn't care about his aching skull; all he cared about at the moment was Kairi. It didn't take long to find her. Her head was resting on his stomach, which ached slightly, so he assumed that she had actually landed on it. That was alright though, because at least it cushioned her head from the fall. One of them had to keep their brains intact.

He groaned and pushed himself up on his forearms, hearing Roxas muttering things that didn't quite make sense. He tried to listen closer, but all he could make out was a string of colourful curses that they had picked up from Jack Sparrow and Cid.

Sora ran a hand through Kairi's hair, and she let out a small groan. As she started to shift, Sora suddenly felt shock coming from Roxas, and that was enough to make him look up away from the girl on his stomach. He looked around, his eyes widening in surprise when he recognized the Usual Spot in Twilight Town.

Kairi finally managed to push herself up, looking around with confusion. Sora sat up, and she looked around at him and asked, "How'd we get to Twilight Town?"

He shrugged and said, "Not a clue what happened."

"I'm sorry," Naminé said as she appeared. "I messed up the corridor a bit. I'm not too used to using them anymore."

"No worries Nami," Kairi said to her Nobody. She was about to add something else when a loud crash distracted them. All of them whipped around as the lid of a garbage can rolled into view, and without a word, Naminé vanished. She wasn't sure who would be able to see her, but she didn't want anyone to think that the place was haunted.

Sora helped Kairi off of the ground, and took a few cautious steps towards the entrance of the Usual Spot. He paused for a moment, before leaping forward and pulling back the thick, dusty curtain.

A yelp of surprise escaped his lips when he came face to face with Hayner, who jumped away from him with fright. They stared at each other in silence before speaking at the same time.

"Hayner?"

"Sora?"

Kairi came up behind Sora and looked around his arm as Pence and Olette came into view, looking more amused than anything.

Hayner glanced at his friends before asking, "What?"

Laughter escaped both of their lips and Pence said, "You jumped like there was a ghost or something."

Kairi felt Naminé shift uncomfortably, but the redhead assured her blonde counterpart that it would have been more than hilarious if she actually had been visible when Hayner appeared.

"Kairi!"

She broke out of her thoughts as she looked around at Olette. The brunette had moved so that she was only a few feet in front of her, smiling widely. There was a pause before the green-eyed girl threw her arms around the redhead in a friendly hug. "I knew you'd be alright! I knew Sora would get you back from that guy who took you."

"Of course he was going to get her back," Hayner said while crossing his arms in front of him. "I mean, he was close to tears when he heard that she was taken."

"I was not," Sora shot back quickly, his cheeks blushing with embarrassment.

"That's true," Pence agreed, causing Sora to smile. Sora's smile quickly turned into another embarrassed frown as the shorter teen added, "He just kinda seemed like he wanted to beat himself to a pulp."

Kairi laughed and patted Sora's back. "It's alright. I think it's sweet."

Sora grumbled under his breath before turning his attention to Olette as she spoke. "Was that loud crashing you guys?"

"I thought it was you," Sora answered, confusion passing over his face.

"Oh, the garbage can was me," Pence looked slightly shy about admitting this. "But we meant before that. There was a huge crash or something."

"Probably us," Kairi answered. "We kinda just fell here."

"You mean like how you and that dog, ("Pluto, was it?" Pence asked) fell here last time?" Hayner asked curiously.

"Yeah," Kairi answered. "Same way, but Sora and I can usually get through them without knocking ourselves unconscious. We're not quite sure what happened to cause it though." Naminé tried to argue with her internally, saying that she messed up, but Kairi ignored her.

"So, you guys are traveling from world to world? Why?" Hayner asked, excitement passing over his face at the prospect of an adventurous story.

Kairi was about to answer when her stomach made a loud gurgling sound. Everyone looked at her, and she blushed brilliantly before turning around and hiding her face in Sora's shirt.

Her boyfriend laughed, but hugged her anyway. He smiled at the people around them and asked, "Any way we could get some food and maybe bring it back here? This is probably the best place to tell the story without anyone hearing."

"No worries," Pence said quickly. "We can just get some seasalt ice cream!"

"Did you hear her stomach?" Hayner exclaimed. "I don't think an ice cream bar is going to help."

Olette cleared her throat and said, "You two go get some pizza or something and bring it back here. Anything you two don't like?"

Sora knew that the food on Twilight Town was slightly different than on Destiny Islands, but both warm worlds had similar enough cuisines for him to honestly say that he would eat anything. Kairi insisted that if she didn't like something, she would pick it up. With that, Hayner and Pence left.

"Hey," Olette said suddenly. "You guys don't mind if I run to change my uniform, do you? If I get another one dirty, my mother is going to skin me." Once the two assured her that it was no big deal, she quickly sprinted down the road.

Sora sighed and slumped back in the same place where Roxas always sat in the virtual version of Twilight Town. Kairi quickly made her way over to him, sitting on his lap and pressing her face into his neck.

"What's wrong?" he asked her as he wrapped his arms around her small form.

"I'm just tired," she admitted as she closed her eyes. "I feel a lot safer when I'm sitting with you."

Sora nodded his head and hugged her, looking up as Roxas and Naminé appeared in front of them.

Naminé twisted her hands together and said, "I'm sorry. I was never too good at opening dark portals. I mean I was able to get around the Castle That Never Was, as well as a few places in Twilight Town, but aside from that, when I was on my own I never had the opportunity to try."

"It wasn't your fault," Roxas said quickly before anyone else could talk. He moved his arm around her shoulder and added, "It could have easily happened to me too."

Naminé shrugged a bit, and Roxas turned his attention back to Sora and Kairi. "So, what do you guys think about Maleficent? I never bothered to ask back in the last world, but we know that she's definitely up to something now though. Why else would she help the Shadow Man?"

Sora shrugged a bit and said, "She is up to something, but everything else that's happened doesn't seem to fit her normal style of doing things. With Maleficent, it's go big or go home. We'd know if she was in on everything else that's been happening."

"So we have two different enemies to worry about?" Naminé asked. It was more of a rhetorical question, since they all already knew the answer.

"Well, at least we know a thing or two about Maleficent," Kairi said, trying to look on the bright side. "I mean we don't have a clue who else we're dealing with, so it's nice to know we know something about someone."

Sora chuckled a bit and said, "I'm not all too worried about Maleficent anyway. She's just following her same old tactics. These other ones though, they're something different all together."

"I'm back. I brought some pop since I know Hayner and Pence won't remember to get any. They never remember unless they're—" Olette stopped speaking as she walked into the Usual Spot, her green eyes widening in shock as she let the bag in her hand tumble to the ground. She took a step away from Sora and Kairi, who stood up with confused looks on their faces. She looked at them wildly before pointing and saying, "Ghosts!"

"What?" Sora and Kairi asked in unison. There were no ghosts in this place that they could see.

"Can you see us, Olette?" Roxas asked hesitantly, taking a step towards her.

In turn, Olette stepped away from him and said, "Stay away! I have salt and I can make salt lines!"

"You can really see them though?" Kairi asked while pointing at the two Nobodies. "The blonds there?"

"Yes why…you don't see all that shocked," she said, eyeing t hem suspiciously now.

"That's because they aren't ghosts," Sora explained. "These are our Nobodies."

"Nobodies? But I thought those strange white creatures were called Nobodies?" Olette asked.

"Well—"

"Hey guys, we brought—GHOST!"

Sora chuckled as Roxas shook his head. They glanced at each other and Roxas said, "This is going to take some explaining."

"No kidding," Sora agreed.

**VVVVVVVV**

"So, in short, Roxas is you, and Naminé is Kairi, just different?" Pence summarized for everyone as he took another slice of pepperoni pizza, gazing at the two Nobodies with interest.

"Yup," Sora answered for them, since Kairi was too busy devouring her food. What could she say? She was starving and it had been forever since she had eaten a good pizza.

"You really lived in the other Twilight Town?" Hayner asked Roxas, who was sitting beside Naminé staring wistfully at the room around him.

"Yeah," he said with a nod of his head. "DiZ did a really good job making digital versions of you guys. You were exactly the same there as you are here."

"And we were friends, right?" Olette questioned.

"Best friends," Roxas said sadly.

"How about you Naminé?" Pence wondered aloud. "Were you always with us too?"

"Oh, no," she replied shyly. "I never lived in virtual Twilight Town. I was in the mansion of real Twilight Town trying to help fix Sora's memories, but when DiZ, Riku, Axel and even the Dusks started to mess with Roxas too much in virtual Twilight Town, I hacked the system and went in myself at times. Whenever too many people from the outside world were there though, the program froze, so your digital copies never saw me."

"Are you guys always like that?" Hayner asked. "Ghost-like?"

"Well," Naminé said thoughtfully, "in theory, we could probably switch with Sora and Kairi if they let us."

"Switch?" Sora asked curiously.

"Well, you two are the dominant parts, but we still are you too," Naminé explained. "So in theory, if you give us permission, we could probably become the physical ones for a while well you and Kairi pretty much take a break in the back of your minds."

"Being the dominant sides though," Roxas added, "you'd probably be able to switch us back whenever you wanted."

"Why didn't you tell us this before?" Was the question that Sora blurted out.

"We never thought it really mattered," his Nobody said honestly with a shrug. "I mean, it's not like we're unhappy or anything."

"You should have said something," Kairi said to them. "We both would have switched with you from time to time. No questions asked. In fact, that might be helpful because then it might be harder for these new enemies to track us."

"I guess," Naminé said after a moment of thought. "It just wasn't one of those priority things."

"How about now?" Sora suggested. "We're in Twilight Town, which is more your area than ours, per se. You can take over for a while."

"And we'll rest and be the annoying voices in the back of your head," Kairi added happily.

The three Twilight Town natives watched with interest as the four in front of them closed their eyes and light engulfed them. When it vanished, instead of Sora and Kairi, Naminé and Roxas sat where their Others had been sitting, completely solid.

"That," Hayner pointed at them in awe, "has got to be the weirdest thing I've ever seen in my life."

"I'd agree," Roxas said, "except that one time where—" He cut himself off when the sounds of footsteps was heard echoing through the alleyway. Roxas got up and peaked out of the curtains, watching a blonde girl and a blue haired man looking around.

"Are you sure that the Keyblade Master and Princess ended up here?" the girl asked after a moment.

"Positive, lets keep looking." The two then walked off.

"They're looking for us, aren't they?" Naminé asked as she came up behind Roxas.

The blond nodded and said, "We should probably go somewhere else for a while."

"It's getting late," Olette said as she put the empty pizza boxes and pop cans in the trash bin they kept in their hangout. "You can both spend the night at my house. My mom and dad are gone for the weekend, and my older brother is hanging out with his friends so no one will ask questions. I only have one extra bed though and no sleeping bag because Hayner and Pence are staying over too."

"That probably isn't a problem to them," Hayner pointed out, and the three of them laughed as Naminé and Roxas blushed brilliantly.

"_We should probably go before they come back," _Sora suggested to Roxas in their mind.

Roxas nodded and said, "It's fine, lets just get out of here."

**VVVVVVVV**

His cerulean blue eyes took in the night sky, remembering all of the times that he had looked upon it with his friends. Twilight Town was always a special place to Roxas, and some might have gone as far as saying that it was his true home world, but he knew better now. As much as he loved the deep red tones the sky took at night (compared to the vibrant hues of dusk and dawn, and the yellow tint of day) he loved actually having day and night and seeing the stars.

Originally, Roxas had assumed that Sora and Kairi would take over after they went to sleep, but Sora insisted that he and Naminé stay on the outside for a while. Neither had known that their Nobodies could actually take physical forms and felt bad about never letting them, so, for now, the blonds would stay on the outside.

All things considered, Roxas was glad that he had someone like Sora as his Other. Most people probably would have been weirded out with the concept.

He heard a yawn from his side and looked away from the window. Naminé rolled over onto her side to stare at him, and ran a hand through his spiky hair. "Get some sleep Rox, we'll need it for tomorrow."

"We're leaving tomorrow, right?" Roxas asked her.

"Kairi thinks so, and it's probably or the best. If someone is searching for us, we don't want to leave a trail that leads them to Hayner, Pence or Olette," Naminé explained.

Roxas seemed to think about this for a moment before nodding and saying, "Night Nam." He learned forward and kissed her quickly on the lips before pulling her close, dozing off into sleep fairly quickly.

Naminé blushed lightly but snuggled up to him, letting herself fall into a peaceful slumber.

**Jiminy's Journal**

**Hayner** – This teen is the self-appointed leader of their small group. He's stubborn, and can be a little hostile to new people. He enjoys struggle battles and is very competitive. He first appeared in Kingdom Hearts II.

**Olette **– A kind girl who acts as a voice of reason for her friends. She always keeps her friends on task. She first appeared in Kingdom Hearts II.

**Pence** – He is very a very friendly and curious teenager. He knows a lot about Twilight Town and is interested in all of the myths and legend surrounding it.

Twilight Town – A quiet world in constant twilight. It has a large city with many railways and underground passages. It was the world that Roxas first awoke in after his creation and he was kept trapped in a digital copy of the world as Naminé finished mending Sora's memories

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	20. I'll Make A Man Out Of You

_**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**_

_Chapter Nineteen – I'll Make A Man Out Of You_

If there was one thing Riku could say about himself, it was that he had changed a lot from when he was only 15-years-old. Back then all he wanted to do was escape Destiny Islands, to go to another place and to make his mark there. He could also admit that he had been a terribly jealous boy, and one that only thought about himself. It had never mattered to him that neither Sora nor Kairi had shown the same amount of interest in traveling to others places as he did. They did what he wanted without question, so why would it matter?

It was only when Sora started to disagree with him (after that, Kairi began to show a little disdain at the thought of leaving Destiny Islands) when he started to show some interest in what his friends thought. That was when Riku noticed a shift in his two friends, a shift towards each other.

That hadn't settled well with him. His jealousy began to grow, and soon he too was vying for Kairi's attention, willing to do anything to show up his best friend. He was well aware that the only reason Sora was so excited to travel on their raft was to help Kairi find out about her past. Sure, he wanted to travel with his friends too, but he wasn't as hardcore about it as Riku had been.

Things had changed since then though. Sure, sometimes he still wanted to explore other worlds for fun, sometimes he found himself bossing his two friends around, and sometimes he was extremely jealous of them, but he knew how to deal with it. He didn't let his jealousy consume him anymore, although it was hard at times, especially when he saw just how close his two friends were becoming.

Riku wasn't even going to try to lie by saying that he had never wondered if something was wrong with him or not. In their time back on Destiny Islands, he had gone on several dates with several gorgeous girls, but none of them really appealed to him. There was rarely a weekend when he wasn't out with a girl, except for those he spent with his friends. He was honestly starting to wonder if something was wrong with him, because not a single girl on Destiny Islands ever really appealed to him after he got over Kairi. Sometimes he wondered if he really did get over her at all and maybe that was the problem. It didn't matter if it was though, because Kairi loved Sora and Sora loved her.

A sudden thump of a large book in front of him jerked Riku out of his thoughts. He glanced at the leather bound book in front of him, taking in the fading letters but not understanding what language they were written in.

He slowly looked up, his green eyes meeting Midori's amused brown ones. She smiled slightly and said, "Bout time you came back from Wonderland. Here I was thinking that you really got lost down the rabbit hole."

"Wonderland? We didn't go to Wonderland," Riku said before he realized exactly what she was referring to. He groaned slightly and shook his head. "Never mind. Where'd you get this massive book anyway?"

"This? I borrowed it from the King. I've been trying to get your attention for about the past fifteen minutes," she said while rolling her eyes.

"Sorry I just—this is Mickey's book?" Riku asked, staring at it in awe.

"I know! It's heavy too! He just came strolling out of his room saying 'use this' and walked away. I didn't even tell him I was trying to get your attention!"

Riku picked up the book and grunted a bit. It wasn't that he couldn't lift the book, no he did that easily, it was just he wasn't expecting it to be quite as heavy as it actually was. He could honestly say that he had no freaking clue how Mickey could carry something like that.

"Anything you wanted in particular?" Riku asked the green-haired girl, watching as she sat down across from him at the table in the gummi ship.

She shrugged a bit and said, "I was trying to ask if you had ever been to Land of Dragons before. I'm assuming the answer's no, since you've only been to a few worlds apparently, but I thought I'd ask."

"Actually, I have been to the Land of Dragons," Riku replied. "Didn't stay long, but I was there. Why? That's where we're heading?"

She nodded her head before asking, "What's it like?"

He scrunched up his face for a moment as he thought about what he had seen there. He shrugged and said, "Well, the people in the world seemed to be very family orientated, and…well it was very patriarchal."

Midori made a face and asked, "So it's male dominated?"

"More so than a lot of places I've been."

She sighed and said, "Great. I'm going to have an awesome time there." She saw his curious look, she shook her head and explained, "The world I come from has a very matriarchal society. The women are the ones in charge."

"Ahh, so that's why you're so bossy," Riku observed thoughtfully.

She glared at him and snapped, "I am not, so you shut up!"

He grinned at the irony of her words before saying, "But it's true. The only people who ever seem to intimidate you are Princesses and Queens. Like Ariel when we were in Atlantica, and especially the Goddesses in Olympus."

There was a pause before she said, "What can I say? I'm not a Princess, and I don't have any sort of blood connection to the royalty where I come from, and while women usually have higher statuses than men, if you're royalty and female, you tower over everyone."

"In a good or bad way?"

She shrugged and said, "Depends on the ruler, just like in any other place. What about on Destiny Islands?"

"Hmm…well we didn't have a monarchy or anything," Riku replied. "We had a democracy. I dunno, I wasn't old enough to vote so I never really paid attention or anything. Kairi's adoptive father was the mayor for quite a while though before someone younger got voted in." Silence followed their conversation, but it wasn't an extremely awkward one.

Although they had been traveling from world to world together for a while, Riku wouldn't say that Midori was exactly one of his friends. She was more of an acquaintance at the moment, and a helpful one too. He would never admit it out loud, but she was an amazing hand-to-hand fighter. She might not have been as physically strong as he was, nor nearly as flexible as Kairi had shown she was while training, but Midori definitely had speed on her side. Sure, she wasn't quite as fast as Sora, but she was quick. When it came to sparring and using the Keyblades however, the few times that they had practiced, he always won.

So now he was sitting across the table from her, waiting until they reached the next world. He had a lot of questions for her, but he wasn't exactly sure what he wanted to know. He wasn't sure how she'd react to his questions either, because she had been very secretive about her past so far.

Riku knew that, while Mickey seemed open and warm to her, he was still skeptical about her at the same time. The mouse-king hid it well, but Riku knew him well enough to see his hesitance towards their new friend. He had asked Mickey about it once, but the mouse had shrugged and said that he just wanted to be cautious. He didn't say why, but Riku didn't push on the subject.

"So," Midori asked suddenly, causing him to once again leave his thoughts and look at her. "I don't know all that much about you. Like, what about your family, or your friends?"

Riku seemed to think about this for a moment before shrugging and saying, "I'm an only child, and I live with my father, who's in the military. My mom got a divorce from my father when I was only young and moved to one of the other islands in my world. She remarried this other guy that I don't really care about. Now that I think about it though, I suppose I do have a younger sister and brother, but I've never actually met them myself. I'm not sure what happened to any of them that night the islands broke up."

"Oh," she said. "Sorry."

"No worries. My mother and father, well, obviously they'll always be my parents, but I don't really consider them my family. My father is all about work, and he's a very religious guy too. Sora and Kairi are like my little brother and sister, and I'm closer to them," Riku explained.

"That must be awkward at times," Midori replied with a laugh. "Didn't you say they were dating?"

Riku chuckled slightly and said, "Yeah, I suppose it's a bit weird, but it was meant to happen. How about you?"

She tilted her head, looking slightly amused as she said, "I can't say I really know them."

"Ahh, so you do have more than two emotions. Here I thought you were just stoic, and sarcastic. You can smile," Riku joked, trying to lighten the air between them. It was true, Midori was a very serious young woman, but she was always quick to snap into her sarcastic mode too. He had gotten more amused looks and smiles out of her that day than any other day before, and he was kind of glad to see that she wasn't just stoic.

"I can't say you're all that different Silver," she replied with a small smile. "I take it you were referring to my family?" As he nodded his head, she leaned back and stared at the ceiling of the gummi ship thoughtfully. "My parents were pretty average. My dad stayed home with my sister and I, and my mom worked as a trainer at a local gym full time. My sister was older than me, but between you and me, I think she was more immature than I was. She was only a year older than me, so we were pretty competitive, especially with each other."

"Your mom worked as a trainer? I suppose that's why you seem to be athletic than?"

"Yeah, I guess," she shrugged again.

Riku was about to ask her another question when Mickey came in the room. He glanced at them and said, "We'll be in Land of the Dragons in about five minutes, so get ready." He then walked over to the table, grabbed the large book as if it was only a small piece of paper and walked out of the room.

**VVVVVV**

"Fifty more push-ups men!"

"How the hell did we get roped into this again?" Riku grunted as he did push-ups beside Mickey. While nothing appeared outwardly wrong with Land of Dragons, Mulan had said that the amount of Nobodies around had been rising lately. They decided to stick around for a little while just in case, and in the mean time, they had agreed to do some training with Mulan, Shang and the army.

Riku was definitely in shape, but even he was regretting saying yes to the training.

"I forgot how much I didn't like this," Donald grumbled to Goofy.

"Gawrsh Donald, I thought the only reason you agreed to do this last time was because Sora was taunting ya?" Goofy questioned.

"Probably," Donald growled.

"Wait, you guys did this before?" Riku asked as he did his twentieth push-up. "Why didn't you tell us that we were going to be put through physical torture?"

Mickey chuckled a bit and said, "Sora did this too though. Right guys?" He directed the question at Donald and Goofy.

Donald tumbled to the ground, exhausted, and said, "Yeah. He didn't complain as much as you are though, Riku."

Riku growled a bit and kept going without another word; if Sora could do this, he could too. Actually, forget that. If Sora could do this he could go beyond anything the younger boy did.

Finally, Shang let the troops rest, and while stretching his tired muscles, Riku led the way back towards the place where they were staying. Inside, Midori and Mulan were sitting cross-legged facing the other, talking with quiet voices.

Although Mulan had proven herself to be a true warrior able to keep up with the Chinese men, many of them who didn't know her weren't that comfortable with a woman training with them. This, combined with Midori's discomfort over how it was a male dominated world, led the two young women to train on their own. Whether they were straining themselves as much as the boys were was a question that Riku wanted to avoid. Just knowing that they were doing less would make him crankier.

Midori eyed him oddly as he slumped onto the floor and said, "I'm all for training, but we can't stay here all that long."

"No," Mickey agreed. "We can't, but just a one-day crash course on the Keyblade for Mulan isn't good enough."

"Forgive me your Highness," Mulan piped up. "But I am experienced with a sword."

"Maybe," Mickey agreed, "but Keyblades are different from any other weapon. While people can teach you different magical abilities, and different ways to fight, they cannot teach you how to harness the power of your Keyblade. It's impossible for a person who does not have a Keyblade to truly train a Keyblade Wielder."

"What about you, Mickey?" Riku asked. "Didn't Yen Sid train you?"

"He trained me as best as he could, and that was probably why I was always more experienced in magic before some friends gave me some pointers," Mickey admitted. "He couldn't really train me to use the Keyblade though. I've always had to just purely follow my instincts when using my Keyblade. It was difficult though, and it took years. If we can at least get some people on the right track, it will help."

"Might stop people from being attacked too," Midori agreed. She put her hands behind her head and flopped backwards, staring up at the roof above her. She let out a yawn and asked, "Is anything happening tonight?"

"No," Mulan answered. "It's been a long day of training, you should all get some sleep. I need to go speak to Shang."

All of them bid her goodnight before curling up in the sleeping bags that they had brought with them. Everything seemed peaceful, but Riku couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

**VVVVVV**

It was an explosion that ripped them violently out of their dreams. Riku would later admit that he honestly didn't remember jumping out of his sleeping bag and rushing out of the door, his mind still shocked from being torn out of his sleep so suddenly. The only thing he would really remember from that night was all of houses not being consumed in fire like he expected, but being turned into ice. The explosion that they had heard was the army fighting back.

There were Nobodies everywhere. The last time Riku had seen this many was when he was in the World That Never Was.

"Careful!" Midori called out as she summoned her Keyblade. "Ice means Carverin's here."

"Fight ice with fire then," Riku called back.

"Firaga!" Donald yelled out, shooting a circle of fire at the ice on one of the structures experimentally. Instead of simply melting the ice off of the house though, it melted the entire structure itself. "Wak? What was that?"

"It looks like he turns thing into ice all the way though," Goofy said.

"It's easier to destroy ice then it is to destroy a living creature," Mickey told his friend. "I wonder how they cast the magic?

"You'll know if it's heading your way," Midori explained to him. "It looks like normal magic until it hits you."

The group launched towards the Nobodies, slashing at them with their weapons. While they could only see the regular Nobodies consisting of Dusks and Assassins, the person that Midori had described, Carverin, was out of sight even though soldiers were constantly being frozen.

Midori ducked underneath the claymore of a large Beserker that had appeared in front of her and ended up somersaulting away from it. She slid a bit on the icy ground, and let out a small scream as a sharp object slammed into the ground beside her. She look at the object and felt her pulse beginning to race.

Out of their enemies, all of them except for one used weapons with the same element that they wielded. Crysita used a crystal staff that she could alter and manipulate, Sarlio used some sort of wooden club, Jorix had a sword that was actually made out of stone but was much stronger, and Carverin always had his axe made of pure ice, but Lilanti's was different. She had never been able to make plants become suitable weapons, so instead, she had a pair of green tinted metal sais that had thing vines woven around them.

This description matched the weapon that was embedded in the snow directly beside Midori. The green-haired girl quickly pushed herself off of the ground as the weapon vanished, ignoring the Nobodies and eyeing the now white world around her. That was when she saw a blur out of the corner of her eye and spun around just in time to block the sai with her Keyblade. With a grunt, she forced Lilanti away from her.

"It's been a while Midi," Lilanti said, her vibrant purple eyes staring at her in an almost mocking way. She spun one of her sais in her hand before quickly making an upward motion with her fingers.

Midori quickly jumped out of the way as a thick, strong vine shot out of the ground exactly where she had been a second ago, and she could see the grass under the snow in that area die instantaneously.

"Coward," Midori snarled at her. "Using your stolen powers. How many has it been now? How many have you sacrificed for your own gain?"

Lilanti looked uninterested for a moment before saying, "A few. You're right though, I don't need these powers to defeat you." With that, the blonde lunged out, slamming her sais into Midori's Keyblade.

Riku stabbed his Keyblade through the Dancer that had tried to creep up on him. As it vanished, his eyes locked onto Midori fighting with a blonde girl that he had never seen before. He eyed the teenaged girl for a second, taking in her blonde hair that was pulled back into a ponytail, and noted that she didn't seem all that cold moving in the snow, despite wearing a black skirt and a deep green tank-top. It was a random observation, but it was relevant because he could feel the cold already biting at his bare arms. It wasn't affecting her for some reason.

Suddenly, another movement caught his eyes. The ice seemed to suddenly spring off of the ground in a small tornado, and when it vanished there was a tall young man there, an axe made of ice appearing in his hand as the girl forced Midori towards him. She couldn't have known that he was there, because her back was to him, but there was no doubt that this girl she was fighting had seen him.

"Midori! Look out!" Riku yelled as he shot towards her, only to be stopped by several larger than average Beserkers.

Her brown eyes focused on her Keyblade for a second, and on the smooth metal she saw a reflection of an axe from behind her. She quickly kicked Lilanti in the stomach and the girl was knocked to the ground with a winded expression. In the same movement, Midori spun around and blocked the axe, wincing as the ice exploded when it met her Keyblade, the sharp shards slashing at her skin.

Carverin jumped back from her, the axe repairing itself, and Midori remembered again why she hated these people. Trying to destroy their weapons was like trying to take a Keyblade from its rightful wielder, it just didn't happen.

She saw Carverin's eyes flick quickly to the spot behind her, and she turned again just in time to fight back Lilanti's advances, but leaving her back wide open to the enemy behind her. Lilanti's movements were too quick for her though, so she couldn't turn her attention to the young man behind her.

Luckily for her, another stopped his advances. Carverin hadn't seen it coming, but then again, no one would have been excepting to be attacked in the eye by a small cricket. He let out a yell and winced, throwing the small bug off of his face. Before the little creature hit the ground, it was already made of pure ice.

"Oh no! Crickey?" Mushu called out, appearing seemingly out of nowhere and picking up the ice bug. "Speak to me little buddy! Man, you really aren't a lucky bug, are you?" He seemed to realize that the natural heat from his body was starting to melt his friend, so he quickly set him down before looking up at Carverin with angry eyes. "Nobody messes with my friends pal!"

Mushu summoned more power then he seemed to have and a huge fireball appeared in front of him, hovering for a moment before streaking towards Carverin. He attempted to bash it away with his axe, but his weapon melted on impact and he was thrown backwards.

Lilanti groaned angrily and snapped, "Do I have to do everything here?" One of her legs shot out, knocking Midori's legs out from underneath her. With a quick movement, grass shot out of the frozen ground Mushu, engulfing him. When the grass sank back into the earth (dying in the process), the only thing remaining was a Mushu-shaped bush.

Then, she was thrown backwards as something hit her hard. She groaned and pushed herself up, staring face to face with a very angry Donald Duck. He waved his staff and yelled, "Thundaga!"

Carverin pushed himself off of the ground and groaned as he saw his partner get struck by the strong attack. His ice axe appeared in his hand again as he yelled, "Who has to do everything Lil?" He jumped clear over Midori, who was now being distracted by several Dusks, and pointed his axe at Donald.

This it was Goofy who happened to notice what was happening. He held up his shield just as a burst of cold magic flew at them, the shield taking the hit for them. He quickly let go as it froze solid.

While Donald and Goofy were both distracted, Lilanti got off of the ground again and moved beside Carverin. She eyed Midori and Riku (who had arrived on the scene and was fighting the Dusks with the female Keyblade Bearer), and then turned her attention to Donald and Goofy as they were attacked by Nobodies as well.

"Where's the king?" Carverin asked cautiously as his eyes darted around.

"Who cares? What I want to know is where—aha! There she is!" Lilanti exclaimed and pointed at Mulan as she appeared, Keyblade in hand as she knelt down by Mushu.

"Oh Mushu," she whispered before looking up with a stunned expression as Carverin appeared in front of her. She stood up and held her weapon out defensively. He was about to bring his axe down to engage in a battle when he was once again throwing back by a powerful attack, this time coming from Mickey Mouse.

"Mulan you have to—" The mouse paused mid sentence and watched with horror as the plants burst out of the ground, surrounding a stunned Mulan. They fell to the ground a second later, leaving Mulan in the same state Mushu was.

"No!" Shang's voice yelled out as he started rushing towards them, but his body was quickly frozen.

Lilanti looked around at her comrade and said, "He wasn't part of the instructions. Just the girl and the dragon."

"Who cares?" Carverin called back. "We did what we were supposed to."

"Lilanti!" Midori screamed suddenly and rushed forward. The blonde girl just smiled and waved at her, vanishing as a whirlwind of leaves appeared around her.

Carverin eyed them a second and said, "How does it feel knowing that you're on the losing side Midori? None of you stand a chance against us, and you know it." A second later, he vanished in a twister of snow. The Nobodies soon followed, their mission to be a distraction complete.

"What do we do now?" Donald asked sadly as he looked at all of the destruction, and at their fallen friends.

"There's nothing we can do here," Mickey replied with a sigh. He looked around at them all and said, "We can't use magic on them, it will only kill them. Do you think there's a way to change them back?" The question was directed at Midori.

"In theory, if we beat them their magic and everything involved in it should go away," Midori explained as she crossed her arms in front of her, looking at Mulan sadly. "But they're getting stronger. Too strong. I've never seen them have such control over their powers before."

"They came here to do this to Mulan and Mushu," Riku said suddenly, "that's what that girl said. A Keyblade Bearer and a powerful guardian."

"So they must be going around eliminating any threats before they can really become threats," Goofy suggested.

"Yeah, but why leave us though?" Riku wondered out loud.

There was a long silence, one that was broken by a defeated tone coming from Mickey, "They're toying with us. They're going to block of any resource we might have for help so it's only us in the end. It's all just a game to them. One that, unfortunately, we're losing."

Midori looked down at the snowy ground to hide her sad frown. She couldn't cry, it was an impossible feat at the moment, but her frustrations were starting to get the better of her. She knew Mickey was right, and she also knew that they were starting to run out of time.

**VVVVVV**

Sorry about the delay updating. I meant to update last weekend but I got completely distracted with other things. I'll see if I can get out another chapter tomorrow to make up for it, but it just depends what's going on.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed! I know I haven't replied to any one in a while, but I really appreciate it. It's pathetic how busy my summer's been this year. I can't wait until school starts again so I can start sleeping in 4 out of 7 days of the week.

Yes you heard me right, I want university to start so I can sleep in. Life is weird like that sometimes.

And a moment of self promotion again. I've uploaded images of Roxas, Xion and Namine redone in different outfist and everything (Xion was horrible to do because I had to piece her together from images of Kairi, Namine and a bit of Aqua because of her bulky Organization cloak). The link to my deviant art page is on my profile if you'd like to see them. I'd really appreciate some feed back.

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	21. One Day Too Late

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Twenty – One Day Too Late_

A loud crash and a scream jerked Kairi violently out of her enjoyable dreams. She was confused, looking around and not comprehending what was going on. Her room looked perfectly normal, so why would there be a scream? After a moment, she realized just how stupid that question was. Just because her room was fine, didn't mean everywhere else was fine.

She got out of her bed and blindly made her way towards where she knew her window was. She pushed the bright yellow curtains out of the way and looked beyond the pane of glass. The only problem was that she couldn't see a thing. There wasn't a single light on outside, and a cloudy sky blocked the moonlight.

Kairi quickly made her way around her room in the dark, throwing on her clothes as she did. She made sure to attach her small pack to the side of her belt that had some medical items in it, just in case. It wasn't a lot, because she didn't have super pockets like Sora did. She then attached the Oathkeeper keychain that Sora had given back to her to her belt before searching her pitch-black room for a flashlight.

She cautiously pushed open her bedroom door, using the flashlight to guide her way. As she moved, her red hair turned into blonde hair that was styled slightly differently. Her clothes changed into a simple white sundress, and her shoes into a pair of pale blue sandals with golden stars. A gasp escaped her lips as she suddenly realized that she wasn't on Destiny Islands at all, but everything seemed to be the same.

Naminé blinked, realizing that the thought of jumping up and getting dressed while roaming around the room had been a memory. She was still standing in the room that she had been given in Olette's house, but everything still felt the same as when Destiny Islands vanished.

She jumped when she heard Olette scream again. It took her a moment to find where the door was, but once she found it she yanked it opened and walked down the hall cautiously. Slowly, everything began to take shape in the darkness, and that was when it occurred to her how odd this scene truly was. Twilight Town didn't even actually have night. It was constantly twilight there.

Naminé managed to navigate her way to Olette's living room, not pausing to wonder where Roxas had gone. She knew that, of all people, he would be able to take care of himself. No, she was worried for Olette. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the outline of the girl staring out of her window, just barely visible.

Naminé moved towards her and placed her hand on the other girl's shoulder. Olette jumped and screamed again and Naminé quickly said, "It's me!"

"Sorry," Olette replied, her voice sounding frightened. "I thought you might have been-"

"I know," Naminé quickly said, "I should have said something before sneaking up on you." She turned her attention to the window and asked, "What happened?"

"I don't know. I was asleep and then I heard a crash outside. I woke up and I saw Roxas in the living room with a flashlight." She turned it on, flashing it at Naminé before quickly moving it towards the floor. "Sorry. Anyway, he gave me the flashlight and told me to stay inside."

"Where are Hayner and Pence?"

"They were stubborn and went outside," Olette explained. "I'm surprised that you didn't get up the second Roxas did."

Naminé frowned and placed her hand over her heart. She didn't understand why she had stayed asleep when he got up. Back on Destiny Islands, Kairi always knew when something was wrong with Sora, so why couldn't she feel it with Roxas? It didn't make any sort of since.

Suddenly, something slammed into the window, shattering it. Both girls screamed and moved away, Olette shining the light on it. Confusion passed over Naminé when she realized what she was witnessing: a Heartless and a Nobody were attacking each other.

The two creatures suddenly vanished as Oblivion slashed through them. Roxas appeared a second later, the Keyblade in his hand as he stared at where the creature had been. He glanced back at the two girls and said, "We have to get out of here, now."

His stress on the word now scared Naminé. Olette shone the flashlight in his direction, and the blonde girl let out a gasp, moving towards him. There was a long slash up his arm that was bleeding heavily, but he seemed to be trying to ignore it.

"You're hurt," Naminé whispered.

"I'm fine, we have to go," Roxas insisted desperately.

She shook her head and held out her hand, concentrating for a moment. There was a flash of light that lit the room for a moment, and as Olette turned the flashlight to it, Naminé realized that it was a Keyblade she had never seen before. She couldn't really get a good look at it, but she could feel the chains wrapping around the guard of the blade.

Breaking out of her thoughts, she held the Keyblade up to his arm and said, "Curaga." Instantly his wound healed.

Roxas blinked with surprise and asked, "How did you do that? Kairi isn't that good with magic."

"I don't know," Naminé answered, feeling a little bit awkward. Her eyes looked around the room uncomfortably before she realized something. "Where are Hayner and Pence?"

Roxas bit his lip, his eyes not meeting either of the girls'. Another loud crash from outside distracted them, and through the shattered window they could make out a Beserker attacking a Large Body.

"What is going on?" Olette asked, her eyes flickering from one fighting figure to the next.

"Come on," Roxas said, and the two girls followed him out of the room quickly. "Nobodies and Heartless are tearing each other apart, but so many people are caught in the middle of this. It's bad."

"Why are they fighting? Aren't these things on the same side or something?" Olette wondered as the three of them moved through the darkened streets, the flashlight serving as their only guide. So far, all of the fighting creatures had ignored them.

"No," Roxas replied. "Heartless and Nobodies naturally fight against each other because if you destroy both halves the original will reappear, and a Nobody's only goal really is to get back their own heart. The problem is Nobodies can never seem to find their own hearts."

Olette nodded her head slowly before asking, "So this happens everywhere?"

"No," Naminé answered. "I've never seen Heartless and Nobodies fight like this. It's almost as if—" She stopped in her tracks, a look of realization appearing on her face. "Maleficent!"

"What?" the other two stopped, staring at her with confusion.

"We already know Maleficent's controlling the Heartless, right?" Naminé said. "And these other enemies are controlling the Nobodies presumably, so that means that both of them probably tried to make a move on this place at the same time. It's just like how Maleficent was with the Organization: she doesn't want a thing to do with them."

"And you're excited about this, why?" Roxas asked, staring at her oddly. "That's two sets of enemies we have after us."

"And they're distracted by each other, aren't they?" Naminé said while pointing her Keyblade in the direction of the fighting creatures. Suddenly, the sound of fighting around them stopped, but they could still hear it in the distance.

"Naminé," Roxas said suddenly, "make your Keyblade disappear. Now."

The blade vanished from her hand, but the damage had been done. The Heartless and Nobodies seemed to realize that there were Keyblade Wielders amongst them and stopped fighting each other, instead staring at the three in front of them.

"Run!" Roxas yelled suddenly. He grabbed Olette's arm, causing her to drop the flashlight, and the three started running down the narrow streets. They could hear the sound of movement behind them, but whether it was the creatures starting to fight again, or scurrying after them, they didn't wait to see.

"Where is everyone?" Naminé asked.

"I—" Roxas was cut off as he crashed into something solid, stumbling to the ground and holding his cheek, knowing that it was going to bruise. He heard Sora grumble from inside of him, but ignored him. He summoned Oblivion again, and muttered, "Lightga."

Both of the girls winced from the sudden light, but as soon as Olette could see again, she let out a horrified scream.

Naminé's eyes snapped open and she let out a gasp when she saw what Roxas had run into. There, as if carved out of wood, as Hayner.

Roxas pushed himself off of the ground and stared at him with an odd look, but he didn't seem all that surprised. That's when it occurred to Naminé that he had known. When she had asked what happened to Hayner and Pence, he had avoided her eyes, and this was why.

Olette let out a small sob as she touched Hayner's wooden hand, tears streaking down her cheeks. She breathed in and out for a moment before asking, "Is Pence like this too?"

"No," Roxas answered with an almost stern voice. "Pence isn't like that. I'm willing to bet anything that he's a Heartless now."

Naminé hugged Olette as the girl stumbled to her knees and buried her face in her hands.

'_We'll find a way to get them back Roxas,' _he heard Sora whisper from within him. _'I promise.'_

'Hayner maybe, but Pence?' Roxas thought back. 'Sora, you know how hard it is to pair a normal Heartless with a normal Nobody. We might never find him.'

'_We'll try,'_ Sora replied confidently. _'That's all we can do.'_

Roxas nodded his head and looked at the two on the ground, "We have to keep going. Since they didn't catch up with us, I'm assuming that the Heartless and Nobodies got distracted by each other again. I don't know how long that'll last though, since someone else is obviously here."

"Where do we go?" Olette managed to ask, but her tears had not stopped.

"The mansion," Naminé suggested with a weak shrug.

"It's as good a place as any," Roxas agreed. The two girls got off the ground, and the three of them made their way towards the mansion. Roxas kept his Keyblade out, using the light on the tip as a guide so that they wouldn't crash into anything else.

'_If the pain in my jaw is there when I get back,' _Sora threatened, _'I will make your life a living hell.'_

'Of course it'll be there,' Roxas pointed out, 'you and I are the same person.'

Sora ignored him and went silent, but not because he didn't have anything to say. No, he went silent because they had entered the woods, or at least, what was once woods.

"What in god's name?" Olette muttered, her green eyes widening as she eyed the remains of the trees. Oddly enough, all of the leaves and vegetation were left, currently as green as they always were, but the wood, if any was left, was in rotten piles on the ground.

"Remember what we figured out?" Naminé said cautiously as she summoned her Keyblade. "Whoever we're dealing with pretty much sucks the life out of nature and uses it for themselves." There wasn't much built out of wood in the town, so they didn't know if it only effected nature or man-made things as well, but there was no time to go back and look.

Roxas nodded his head and said, "Lets get to the mansion, and fast. I don't like it here."

This time Naminé took the lead, hiding her wince when the splinters of the trees dug into her exposed feet. She wouldn't complain about that though.

'_Sandals weren't the best idea,' _Kairi's voice echoed in her mind.

'I know that,' Naminé shot back. 'It's not like I choose what to wear. I kinda just appeared in this. Why, I don't know. It's just how it is.'

She heard Kairi snort in delighted laughter as she replied, _'Yeah, imagine if you just appeared naked? There was a pretty good chance that you and Roxas would have appeared together as well. That would have been embarrassing.'_

'I really hate you sometimes,' Naminé replied dryly, ignoring her Somebody's laughter. Finally, they managed to get through the covered over paths, reaching the mansion. She was about to walk towards it, but Roxas' hand shot out and grabbed her arm, stopping her.

She turned around to ask why he stopped her, and was slightly startled to see Sora there instead, having taken control again.

He looked at Naminé and said, "Something doesn't feel right about this place. Roxas wouldn't believe me though because he couldn't feel it. Does that make sense? That I could sense something and Roxas couldn't?"

Naminé hesitated then nodded before saying, "Yeah. Kairi, she can always feel you, always sense where you are so strongly, and when I'm the one inside, I can too. When I'm outside like I am now though, it's hard to sense Roxas, and I don't know why. Look, your Keyblade even changed when you and Roxas switched." It was true; Roxas had been using Oblivion and now Sora had the Kingdom Key in his hand. "I'm willing to bet the same thing will happen with me and Kairi when we switch back. I just don't know why."

"Umm, guys?" Olette said suddenly, taking a few steps back. "This is nice and all, but I have a bad feeling about that guy in the roof up there."

Sora looked up, and Naminé turned around to see the silhouette of a man on top of the roof of the mansion. Naminé noted that the area they were in was definitely brighter than the town (for some odd reason), but she wasn't going to think about that at the moment.

The man jumped down suddenly, landing evenly on the ground in front of them. Sora quickly moved so that he was standing in front of Naminé and Olette protectively, glaring at the man darkly.

He chuckled a bit and said, "Keyblade Master, we've been looking for you for a while."

Needless to say, Sora was taken back by this proclamation. A confused look passed over his face before he moved into a defensive stance and said, "Yeah, well, we've been waiting to meet you too."

The man chuckled and said, "Have you now?" His piercing silver eyes turned to Naminé and he added, "Chuck the redhead for a blonde did ya? Can't say I blame ya. Blondes are much better."

"Don't!" Naminé yelled and grabbed Sora's arm, stopping him from lunging forward. Her indigo eyes studied the person in front of them and said, "He's trying to provoke you."

"I suppose she's right," he answered. "My name is Sarlio, and while I was told to bring the Princess as well, just you will suffice for now." He pointed at Sora before moving his hand and a thick wooden club appeared in it.

"He doesn't know you're Kairi," Olette whispered to Naminé.

Before Naminé got the chance to answer, Sarlio jumped at them and Sora just barely managed to jump out of the way. His cerulean eyes widened as he saw the club actually shatter the ground when it hit the dirt, and he knew that his suspicions about it not being just a normal weapon were right.

"Get Olette out of here!" Sora suddenly said to Naminé. "I can handle this guy." With that, Sora lunged at Sarlio, slamming the Kingdom Key down onto the wooden club, splintering it.

Naminé bit her lip before grabbing Olette's hand and running out of the way. She led her quickly into the woods, out of the view of Sarlio. Holding up her pale hand, Naminé created a dark portal.

"You have to go through it Olette," she explained. "I can't leave Sora on his own, but I can't protect you too. I don't have enough experience with a Keyblade yet."

Olette bit her lip before nodding her head and asking, "What do I do?"

"Just keep running straight," Naminé explained. "I tried to focus on a safe world, so you should be okay." She really didn't want to make the brunette wander into the darkness on her own, not really knowing what was on the other side, but she had no choice. Both girls heard a large crash and their attention turned back to where Sora was for a second.

"Go!" Naminé yelled and pushed her towards the portal.

"Be careful," Olette replied as she walked into the darkness. "And you better get the people who did this to Hayner and Pence."

"You can bet we will," the blonde said with a nod. "Now go, and whatever you do, don't stop walking. I'd run if I were you."

Olette nodded and with that, she was gone.

Naminé was about to return to the front yard of the mansion when she felt an odd tug from within her. There was a flash of pale yellow light, and then it was Kairi standing in the physical world again.

'_No!' _she heard Naminé yell at her. _'He wasn't interested in me, but he'll try to take you too!'_

"Exactly," Kairi whispered aloud as she summoned Oathkeeper. "He'll have two targets to try and capture instead of one." Ignoring her Nobodies pleas for them to switch back, she shot into the gates of the mansion again.

The second she stepped into the gates, she felt her breath catch in her throat as Sora stumbled to the ground, holding his Keyblade out defensively in front of him as he struggled to keep the club from hitting him. Without any sort of second though, Kairi shot forward and kicked the man in the stomach.

Sarlio let out a grunt when the purple sneaker made contact with his abdomen and slumped over, giving Sora and Kairi the chance to scramble away from him.

"Are you okay?" Kairi asked as she touched a small cut just below his eye where a splinter had hit it.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied and turned his attention back to Sarlio as he pushed himself off of the ground.

"I knew you were the blonde," Sarlio grunted at Kairi, anger flaring in his unnervingly cold eyes. "You just wait bitch until we capture you. Just because we need you don't mean Carverin, Jorix and I can't have fun with you first."

Sora stepped in front of Kairi and said, "Like hell you will." Kairi tried to call him back, but he quickly ran forward, engaging Sarlio in battle again.

Kairi quickly followed him, determined to help and to prove that this person didn't scare her in the least.

Sarlio grunted again, and even he could admit that fighting two Keyblade Bearers rather than only one was more difficult than he thought it would be. Kairi wasn't nearly as experienced as Sora, but her natural flexibility and agility made her very hard to hit.

He took in the situation quickly and made his move after a fast calculation. He waved his arm and the stump of a tree seemed to appear out of nowhere, flying at them. Sora moved out of the way, but the root of the stump caught him across his cheeks and nose, just barely missing his eyes, and sending him to the ground. At the same time, Kairi had been coming at Sarlio from the other direction, but with Sora on the ground now, he was able to block her attack easily. She tried to dodge out of the way as the club came at her, but he moved too fast for her.

Instead, Kairi quickly moved Oathkeeper into a more defensive position, and let out a small grunt of strain as the club smashed into it with a great force. Sarlio brought it up into the air again, but this time he didn't aim for her head. Having Oathkeeper up high to protect her skull, she had left her own stomach wide open. She let out a loud, but quick scream of pain as the wooden club crashed into her abdomen and her back slammed into the stone walls that surrounded the mansion.

Kairi gasped in pain as her hands clutched her stomach and Oathkeeper vanished. A shadow fell over her, and she looked up to see Sarlio looming over her. She was in too much pain to move, every twitch of her legs seemed to make her stomach ache violently, causing black dots to appear in her vision, so all she could do was close her eyes.

The pain didn't come though. Instead, she heard a slashing sound, like a sword cutting through something different than just wood. She felt several splashes of a warm liquid fall onto her, followed by a sickening thump on the ground.

Her eyes snapped open and she let out another scream, moving away from the arm that was on the ground in front of her, the hand resting on the base of the club. Sora was standing in front of her, panting wildly, and Sarlio had stumbled away, holding the stump where his arm once was.

He didn't cry out in pain, his body too shocked with what had just happened. Instead, he just stared at them with a stunned expression before what looked like roots of a tree appeared out of the ground, surrounding him. When they vanished, he was gone.

The Kingdom Key fell from Sora's hand as he slumped down to his knees, still staring at where Sarlio had vanished. He took several deep breathes, and Kairi went to try to move closer to him, but she only ended up clutching at her stomach harder and letting out a whimper.

Sora's head snapped towards her and he quickly moved so that his body was facing her instead. He placed his hands on her arms and said, "He got you good, didn't he?"

Kairi nodded her head and looked up at him, letting out a gasp as she did. Her face went pale as she forced herself to sit up, despite the pain, and said, "Sora! You're bleeding!"

Sora quickly caught the hands that were about to go to his head in his own. He smiled at her and said, "I know it looks bad, but head injuries can bleed a lot, even if there's not that big of a cut. It looks ten times worse than it actually is." He could still see the skeptical look in her eyes and went to wipe the blood away so that she could see that he was fine, but she stopped him.

"Your gloves are dirty," she said seriously, wincing as she moved. "You'll just give yourself an infection or something."

Sora opened his mouth to reply, but an explosion interrupted him. They both looked around, but they couldn't see a thing from where they were until a violent vortex began to appear in the sky.

"The Nobodies are gone," he said with alarm as he scrambled to his feet. "Meaning the Heartless are destroying everything. We have to leave."

Kairi fell into his arms as she stood up, sure that her entire stomach was heavily bruised. She looked up at the sky and said, "Why do we keep escaping when no one else does?"

"I don't know," he answered honestly. "But we need to leave, now. Roxas!"

His blond Nobody appeared beside him and nodded his head sadly. A dark corridor opened beside them and he said, "I—why did this have to happen here too?"

"Because it's going to happen everywhere if we don't stop it," Sora answered, wiping some of the blood on his face away despite Kairi's protests. It didn't help much, because like he said, any sort of head injury bled a lot.

Roxas vanished again, and Sora lifted Kairi into his arms so that they could move quickly enough. Sarlio had been able to track them to Twilight Town, and Sora was willing to bet that it had something to do with the Dark Corridors. He didn't want to stay in them longer than they had to, and Kairi's injury made it impossible for her to move quickly.

"You always end up carrying me everywhere," Kairi muttered to him as they moved into the darkness.

"I always get hit in the head," he pointed out. "Actually, come to think of it, we're just having really bad luck with getting injured. We'll heal ourselves in the next world."

"It's a war, Sora," Kairi muttered as she rested her head against his neck. "Everyone's going to get hurt."

She had no clue exactly how right she was, especially in the long run.

**Author's Note**

Some of you might remember that in the original I had Hayner and Olette both as Keyblade Bearers. However, you might also remember that I constantly forgot to add them in, later mentioning that they stayed behind for some reason. I decided to fix that problem this time by forgoing them as Keyblade Bearers.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! You guys are the best!

**_Krystal Lily Potter_**


	22. We Are One

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Twenty-One – We Are One_

Sora was relieved that the world that he and Kairi ended up in after leaving Twilight Town seemed to be a pretty empty world. They weren't exactly sure where they were, but neither of them really cared. They had both been so tired and sore when arriving there that they simply healed each other and stumbled to the ground to sleep. They were much too tired to even bother looking around their surroundings. It was a stupid move, but neither of them thought about it. And neither of them had felt a sudden shift in their features once they had healed themselves and fell into a deep slumber.

Sora let out a small groan when the sun's rays hit his face the next morning. He let out a large yawn and went to move his hands over his eyes. It was only then that he noticed something odd: that he couldn't move his hands quite the same way anymore. Blinking with surprise, he opened his eyes and stared at his hands, only to find a set of paws in place of where they once were.

Surprisingly enough, Sora didn't panic or let it bother him. Instead, he just looked around and realized that it wasn't just his hands that had changed but his entire body. He yawned a bit and moved his head only slightly as he realized that there was a pressure on his upper back that wasn't normal. He smiled warmly when his muzzle gently met the warm fur of the body leaning on top of him. He stared at the crimson colour of the fur and gently nudged the small lioness that was now lying over his back.

Kairi let out a small groan and she twitched a bit before saying, "A few more minutes Sora."

"Nope," he whispered, "open your eyes."

She groaned again and Sora assumed that her eyes had finally opened, if the way her body stiffened said anything. There was a pause, and he counted down from three in his head until she let out a small scream, jumping off of him and stumbling to the ground.

Sora pushed himself up off of the ground and stared at her with amusement. Kairi had never needed to walk on four legs before, so she stumbled and fell to the ground in her panic.

"What happened?" she asked wildly, and Sora couldn't help but start laughing at her. She glanced over at him, a glare on her features and her ears pressed against her head, but the second she saw Sora a different expression appeared on her face and her ears perked up.

"What?" he asked once he realized that she was staring.

"You," she emphasized, "Are SO adorable!"

Sora stared at her oddly for a moment before she managed to somehow tackle him to the ground, even though she was having a hard time learning how to walk on four legs. She underestimated her size and weight in her new form and they ended up topping backwards. They fell through the tall, yellow grass and ended up rolling down the hill together, Sora landing on his back and Kairi with her pawns on his shoulders.

She laughed and said, "I pinned ya!"

Sora smiled warmly at her as much as he could as a lion and said, "Maybe, but once I get up I'll be able to walk and you wont."

Kairi pouted and she rolled off of him, allowing him to get up. She observed as he moved his legs, mimicking how he moved them. Admittedly, she had tried her hand at poetry before and while she wasn't horrible at it, she hated English classes. That was Sora's strong suit. She was better with biology. She watched carefully as Sora's muscles moved as he walked, figuring how exactly how to do it. She tried actually moving instead of just mimicking his motions on the spot.

Sora seemed to realize this before laughing as she stumbled again. Kairi glared at him and he pounced over to her, happily nudging her back up. "Lean on me so you don't fall over. We'll try walking together."

"How did you learn?" Kairi asked him as they slowly walked, her leaning slightly on him.

"I had to," Sora admitted. "I was helping Nala and she showed me. I even had to learn to jump a gorge just after it."

A few moments passed and Kairi was eventually able to start walking on her own. She learned quickly and soon she was happily bounding around Sora.

"So this is the Pride Lands?" she asked happily.

"Yeah," he replied. "It looks a lot better than the last time I was here. It reminds me more of the Oasis where we found Simba."

"So where do we go from here?"

"I guess Pride Rock," Sora said while motioning with his paw. "Simba will know if something is going on or not. I mean, everywhere else Naminé and Roxas have taken us has needed our help in some way or another."

"It seems so peaceful here though," Kairi said as she smelled the air. Sora shrugged and turned away from her, looking around. A smirk appeared on her face as she pounced at him.

Sora let out a loud yell as Kairi tackled him and then once again rolled down a steep hill. His world spun around him as they kept flipping over until his back hit the solid ground again, winding him. He blinked as he realized Kairi was one again hovering over him with a superior smirk on her face.

"Pinned ya again," she said teasingly, but then let out a scream as a blast of steam shot out of the ground not far from them. She quickly moved off of him, instead backing behind him with her ears flat against her head.

Sora got onto his legs again and stared around the area they were in. He knew what this place was: the elephant graveyard. It looked a little different though. He assumed it was because they were in a different area from where he, Donald and Goofy had been. He felt a chill go up his spine, and he was sure the fur on his back was literally standing on it's own. Wherever they were it was a lot creepier than the last time he had been there.

Kairi let out a small scream as sudden, rather maniacal laughter echoed around them. Sora took a step backwards, his cerulean eyes darting around the area in front of them. He knew exactly who was making those voices.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" he heard the leader of the trio of hyenas, Shenzi, say as they walked out of one of the large skulls. "If it isn't the brat who helped defeat Scar."

"Hmmm, looks more like lunch to me," Banzai replied. "What do you think Ed?"

The final hyena of the trio laughed hysterically.

Sora eyed them all, noting that they seemed a lot skinnier than they had before. He remembered, after Scar was tossed off of the top of Pride Rock, the hyenas had attacked him. His best bet was that Simba had simply let them off the hook for everything as long as they stayed out of the Pride Lands.

"Shenzi, Banzai, Ed, you look…good?" he said wearily.

"Ha! I'm sure we do!" Shenzi exclaimed. "You know we can't even go back with the other hyenas? Kicked us out because of you stupid lions."

"Why?" Sora asked her, again moving away from them more, nudging Kairi back.

"Well look at this. Keyboys got a girlfriend!"

"I just see dessert."

"Summon your Keyblade," Sora whispered to Kairi, his ears flat against his head and his body tense.

"How am I supposed to use it? I don't have opposable thumbs," Kairi whispered back.

"Crap," Sora said. "I forgot that you've never been here before. It took be a while to understand how to fight with the Keyblade here too. Umm, considering the situation, I think there's only one thing to do aside from being eaten."

"Oh?"

"Run," he whispered harshly, nudging her. The two slowly crept around the hyenas, who were trying to decide which one of them to eat first.

Ed suddenly started freaking out about something. Banzai followed where his arms were flailing.

"Hey, did we order this dinner to go?" he asked.

"No, why?" Shenzi replied, not realizing that they had experienced this exact same scene years before.

"Because there it goes!" he yelled. Shenzi looked around and saw Sora and Kairi running.

Sora urged Kairi on as they continued running, crawling under skeletons and running in zigzags to try and shake the hungry hyenas off.

"Climb up there, hurry!" Sora yelled to Kairi as they scaled a pile of bones. If he could just get Kairi out of danger, he could probably take on the three hyenas himself.

Kairi let out a scream as she ended up slipping and tumbling off of the Bones, directly in front of the hyenas. Shenzi moved close to her, and since she didn't know how to use her Keyblade, Kairi instead slashed at her with her sharp nails.

Shenzi growled at her as Kairi backed away and behind Sora again, who had jumped down and was growling at them. If he tried to fight against one of them, or even two, the other one would no doubt go after Kairi.

Suddenly, a loud roar echoed around them. Sora and Kairi backed farther towards the cliff and the bones as a large, golden shaded lion appeared in front of them. He roared viciously at the three hyenas, who backed away from him.

"Oh, hi Simba," Shenzi said, fear tinting her voice.

"Do you know what you were about to do?" Simba growled at them. "These are my friends."

"Your friends! I didn't know that!" Shenzi obviously lied. "Did you Banzai?"

"No, I didn't have a clue," he answered.

Both of them looked around at the third hyena and said, "Ed?"

He nodded his head.

Simba roared at them and the three took off running. As soon as he knew they were gone he turned to Sora and Kairi and said, "Come on, let's get out of here. We can talk when we're back in the Pride Lands."

The two smaller lions quickly followed Simba, Kairi sticking very close to Sora's side. Simba led them out of the creepy elephant graveyard, back to the grassy areas of the savanna.

"Thanks Simba," Sora said happily to his friend. "How did you know we were there?"

Simba chuckled at his friend and said, "Zazu was flying looking for Kiara and he noticed a commotion from the Elephant Graveyard. We thought it was her. Who is this?"

Sora nudged Kairi forward and said, "This is Kairi."

"Ahh, I've heard a lot about you," Simba replied with a smile. "Sora talked about you all of the time."

"Did he? I hope it was good things," Kairi said while shooting Sora a teasing glare.

Simba chuckled at them before asking, "Where are Donald and Goofy?"

"Well—"

"SIMBA!"

The three lions looked around with alarm as a meerkat's head appeared over the tall grass. Kairi tilted her head oddly and couldn't help but notice how the meerkat looked almost like it was just gliding through the grass and not actually walking.

A second later, she saw why. The meerkat burst out of grass and was riding atop of a large warthog.

"What's wrong Timon?" the lion asked them.

"I've been…oh alright…we," he looked down at the warthog with an annoyed look as the wild big snorted, "have been looking for you everywhere. I mean, we found Nala forever ago but not you. Your mom…or was it Nala's mom? Anyway, one of the grandmothers found her."

Simba nodded his head, a look of relief on his face. He glanced at Sora and Kairi and said, "Looks like everything worked out."

"Worked out? We've been looking for you all over only to find you with Sora and this other lion…" Timon trailed off seemingly realizing what he said. "Sora!"

"Hey Timon," he said with a laugh as he the meerkat jumped off of the warthog and onto him. "Hi Pumbaa."

"And who is this little lady?" the warthog, Pumbaa said to Kairi.

"This is Kairi," Sora answered with a wide grin. "Kairi, this is Timon and Pumbaa."

"Kairi? Sora told us all about you!" Pumbaa said happily. "He couldn't stop talking about you."

"Quite the looker you've got there," Timon said while nudging Sora in the side. "If you get what I mean."

If Sora could, he would have blushed violently. While he could feel his skin heating him, his dark fur stopped anything from showing.

Simba led the way back towards Pride Rock, Timon and Pumbaa chatting happily two the two young lions. Timon was constantly teasing Sora about how he was not only growing like crazy (he was bigger than the first time he was there) but finding a mate as well.

The word 'mate' directed at him and Kairi only made Sora more embarrassed, causing him to stutter and everyone to laugh, even Kairi.

They learned that the Kiara they had been mentioning was Simba's young daughter, who was apparently as much trouble as Simba was a child. The only difference was that whereas Simba dragged Nala into everything with him (and sometimes vice versa), Kiara wasn't exactly close friends with many of the other lion cubs.

"I don't understand," Kairi said as they approached Pride Rock. "Why do prides usually consist of mostly females?"

"Well, my pride is the main one, but there are smaller ones as well. Usually when male cubs grow up, if they're not the next in line to be King, they go off to form smaller prides," Simba explained. "It's how we keep everything in check because the Pride Lands are huge."

"I guess that makes sense," Sora agreed. "It'd be hard to take care of every little thing on your own."

"Did Kiara say where she was?" Simba suddenly asked Timon.

"No, no one tells us anything around here," the meerkat replied.

Simba sighed and said, "I'll have to talk to her later. Well, come on Sora, Kairi. You can come and meet her."

They eagerly went after the full-grown lion. Sora wanted to meet Kiara, and Kairi was interested in meeting Nala as well.

Kairi could feel the eyes of several of the lionesses on her as they followed Simba. She supposed that it wasn't all that common for their king to appear with two random lions.

Suddenly a blur that was the same colour as Simba crashed into the large lion. The blur turned out to be a little lion cup who fell down with an 'oof'. She looked up, intending on glaring at whoever it was in her way, when her ears flattened and she said, "Oh, hi daddy."

"Where were you going?" Simba asked her.

"Ummm…well…"

"Running away from her bath." Sora and Kairi both looked around and saw a paler lioness walking towards them. Nala glanced at Sora with surprise and said, "Sora! It's good to see you."

Kiara's ears perked up as she said, "You're Sora? Really? My dad's told me all kinds of stories about you! I always wanted to meet you! Oh! Is this your mate? She's pretty!"

Sora wished he could disappear into the ground. His ears were flat against his head and he desperately wished that he could turn himself invisible.

"Kiara," Nala said, her voice laced with amusement, "you're embarrassing him. You must be Kairi."

Kairi giggled at both the young lioness' excitement and Sora's embarrassment. She smiled warmly at Kiara and looked up at Nala while saying, "Yes, I'm Kairi."

"So why are you here?" Kiara asked as she walked around the two lion cubs, both of who were larger than herself but definitely not adults. "Oh, oh, is there more danger here? Can I help you like dad used to? I have sharp claws, and I'm fast too! Watch!" She was about to pounce, but Simba stepped on her tail and she stumbled to the ground. She glared up at him. "Daaaad!"

Simba chuckled before saying, "That is a good question though. Why are you two here? Nothing bad seems to be happening here."

"That's the problem," Sora said. "Most places seem to either be fine when we get there, or it goes to hell a little while after we get there. Something really bad is happening Simba, and not only do we have Maleficent coming after us with everything, but we have another enemy too, and we don't know how many of them there are."

"The kinda good thing is that these enemies and Maleficent don't get along all that well," Kairi explained. "At the same time though when we saw the Heartless and the Nobodies fighting, they were ignoring us, but they were destroying everything around them."

"So you think that something like that is going to happen here?" Nala asked, fear subtly tinting her curious tone.

Sora was about to answer when the sound of a stick meeting the ground reached his sensitive ears. He looked felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle up and quickly ducked, just in time for the stick to miss his head.

"Haha, the young one learns quicker than you, Simba," Rafiki said. His smirk quickly vanished into a serious expression as he said, "Already things like that are happening here."

"What?" Timon asked, alarmed. "How can something be happening? We'd know! Is it the end of the world? Please tell me its not the end of the world! There's so much I have to make up for!"

"Hakuna Matata," Pumbaa said to him.

Timon shot him a look and replied, "Pumbaa, stop living in the past."

Sora and Simba snorted with amusement at his words before a serious look replaced Simba's smile and he asked, "Where, Rafiki?"

"It's starting in the Outlands. Darkness is waiting to strike."

"The Outlands? Well can't we just go and stop it there?" Kairi asked.

"No!" She shrunk back behind Sora as Simba, Nala, Timon and Pumbaa all yelled at her. Kiara's ears flattened to the back of her head.

"No Kairi," Simba answered. "The Outlands are outside of our boundaries. You see, there were those who were loyal to Scar. We offered for them to stay here, but the leader, Zira, raged about Scar's death. I had no choice but to banish her and all those who followed her for the safety of everyone else."

"So we have to wait until it comes in the boundaries of the Pride Lands?" Sora asked.

"Yes," Rafiki answered.

"Actually," Simba said thoughtfully, "now that I think about it, maybe the darkness is why Shenzi, Banzai and Ed were about to attempt to eat you two when I found you." Nala looked positively horrified and Kiara looked amazed. "They're usually the hyenas I have to worry about least these days."

"Yes, darkness has been effecting them," Rafiki agreed. "So has hunger though."

"So does that mean you guys are going to stay here for a little while?" Kiara asked happily, bounding around the two of them.

"Yeah, I guess," Kairi answered.

"We know darkness is here," Sora replied. "We should definitely stay to make sure no one gets hurt, or at least to figure out who is here. If it's Maleficent and the Heartless, I have no doubt that the creatures here could defend themselves, but if it's those other guys…"

Kiara was only young, so she had no interest in all of the danger they were talking about. All she knew was that these two lions, who were not adults yet and one of whom was her hero, would be staying for a little while at least.

She was curious about the Outlands though. Maybe she could help Sora and Kairi by going to see exactly what was happening out there.

**Author's Note**

I know, there wasn't much interesting happening here. I've loved the Lion King since I was little though (favorite Disney movie of all time) and I definitely didn't do it justice in the original Actually I'm not doing it justice now, but it's as good as we're gonna get.

Also my friend an I were playing a game for the PS3, Heavy Rain, and we were ALMOST at the end and the stupid thing froze and the file corrupted. Can anyone else say PISSED?

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	23. One Of Us

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Twenty-Two – One Of Us _

"Sora! Kairi! Wake up!"

Simba chuckled tiredly as he cracked open an eye and looked at his energy-filled daughter. She had a tendency to try and jump on him to wake him up when she was bored, but since Sora and Kairi had arrived, she preferred waking them up at ungodly times in the morning instead.

Simba's opened eye glanced at Sora and Kairi, who were curled up close to Timon and Pumbaa. Kiara treated Sora like an older brother, even going as far as to say that she would have treated Kairi like a sister but that would have been gross for her and Sora. Sora had blushed and stuttered again, Kairi had laughed. Simba's smile fell slowly. Kiara had mentioned how having an older brother would have been 'cool' before, but he and Nala had always just laughed and told her to go and play.

A sudden low, annoyed growl caught his attention. He saw that Kairi was indeed awake, but Sora was insisting on staying asleep longer and Kiara definitely didn't appreciate that. She small lioness backed up while growling lightly. Kairi grinned and moved out of the way to give the little lioness more room to move, and then Kiara pounced.

Sora let out a loud 'oof' of surprise at the sudden, unexpected weight on him. His eyes shot open and he looked up to see Kiara hovering over him with an annoyed look. She stared at him for a moment before saying, "Up."

Simba heard Nala laugh quietly next to him. Both of the parents watched in amusement as Kiara and Kairi finally got Sora up, nudging him out of the den so that they could talk a little louder. Simba yawned widely before standing up. As much as he did trust Sora and Kairi to watch over his daughter, they weren't native to the Pride Lands, and he just wanted to make sure that they knew where they weren't supposed to go. They had been there for over a week now, but if Simba could be honest, he was a bit protective over Sora and Kairi as well.

Kiara was bounding around happily, chatting up a storm while Sora seemed to still be a little stunned. Kairi was paying attention to the young lioness, and it seemed this attention distracted her from the fact that Sora was not paying attention to her fairly well.

Once again, Kiara ended up crashing into her father, not noticing that he was there. She smiled up at him and said, "Morning dad. Is it okay if I so with Sora and Kairi?"

"We're going somewhere?" Sora asked tiredly.

Kairi swatted his ear and said, "The watering hole."

"Yes, just be careful. All three of you stay—"

"Away from the Elephant Graveyard and the Outlands," Kiara, Sora and Kairi all said in unison with him.

"Alright can we go now? Please?" Kiara asked impatiently.

Simba heard Nala laugh from behind him as she appeared. She nodded her head and said, "Go on." With that, Kiara led Sora and Kairi off of Pride Rock, talking happily.

Once they were definitely out of earshot, Nala said, "You've started giving Sora and Kairi the exact same lectures you give Kiara, and they've only been here for a few days."

Simba glanced down at her and said, "They may be older than she is, and their minds are definitely older than you'd think they'd be, but they still aren't fully grown yet. You know as well as I can what can happen."

Nala looked down at her paws sadly while nodding her head. She knew exactly what could happen to a cub even when they weren't alone.

**VVVVVVV**

Kiara watched with amazement as Sora showed Kairi how to use her Keyblade. He joked about her being able to catch on quicker as lions than anything else, and that made the young lioness confused. How could they be anything but lions? It's not like they could suddenly change into hyenas or something as far as she knew.

Kairi was able to get the hang of using her Keyblade with her mouth, and now Sora was trying to show her how to control it with her tail. He said that it was helpful to learn because it also left their teeth open to be used.

Kiara let her mind wander. Her two new friends were here to help with a problem before moving on to somewhere else. She had heard her father saying that whatever trouble was coming was going to come from the Outlands.

Her eyes focused on the darkened landscape beyond the Pride Lands. She knew that there were dangerous lions out there, ones that her father had sent away for reasons that he said he'd explain when she got older. She couldn't help but be curious about it though. She could see the mix of agony and hate within his eyes when she asked about it, so she never really pushed it that much. Seeing those emotions in her father frightened her.

She glanced back at Sora and Kairi again. They were practicing fighting with their odd weapons. While it fascinated her and she understood that they had to be ready to fight (although she didn't understand why they couldn't just use their teeth and claws like normal lions), it was boring her. She wanted to do something! If she had wanted to lay around in the sun all day, she would have just stayed on Pride Rock.

Suddenly an idea came to her as she glanced towards the Outlands. She could go and see if there was anything to help Sora and Kairi there. If she could see their exact enemy than she knew it would be helpful. She also knew that they wouldn't let her go there.

There was only one logical thing to do. No, it wasn't to simply stay put or anything like that. The logical thing to do in Kiara's mind was to simply sneak away from them and go to the Outlands herself. She wouldn't stay there long, just to get a glimpse of what was there. Besides, she had always been more than a little curious about what was over there.

Crouching low to the ground, looking back several times to see if Sora or Kairi had noticed her, she slipped away unnoticed.

**VVVVVVV**

"Simba's going to murder us," Sora said as he slumped to the ground. His ears were flat against his head, and he looked like he was about ready to cry.

"It's okay Sora," Kairi encouraged, "we'll find her. You'll see."

Sora glared at her before saying, "Not the point. Simba trusted us to watch Kiara, and what do we do? We lose her!"

"Ahhh so she gave you guys the slip too?"

Kairi jumped and turned around. Timon and Pumbaa had appeared behind them, both looking rather amused.

"What?" Sora asked them, a confused expression on his face.

"Oh, she runs away from us all the time," Pumbaa answered.

"Er, just don't tell Simba that," Timon added quickly. "Since we're so nice though, we can give you a hand in finding her."

"But we already looked everywhere," Kairi pointed out. "Well, anywhere we could think of."

"Except for maybe the Outlands," Sora added with a shrug. There was a pause before all of them looked at each other with alarm. "She wouldn't."

"Oh believe me, she would," Timon replied. "Trouble, just like her old man."

"Simba wasn't that bad," Pumbaa replied.

"You weren't the one he woke up every night," Timon grumbled before sighing and speaking louder. "Alright then, so you guys go to the Pride Lands and get her."

"You're not coming?" Kairi asked.

Timon looked at them before laughing hystarically and saying, "Who? Us? No way! Those lions are likely to eat you two, let alone guys like us."

"Thanks," Sora said dryly. "Well come on Kairi, we better go see if she's there. I suppose we don't actually have to go into the Outlands. We just have to see if she's anywhere there."

"Right," Kairi agreed. She glanced back at Timon and Pumbaa and said, "I know we didn't want Simba to know, but you should probably go and get him, just in case."

"Of course I can do that! What kind of friend would I—" Pumbaa shorted angrily at Timon, "fine, would we be?"

Sora just smiled at the two weakly before bounding off with Kairi close behind him.

**VVVVVVV**

Kiara made sure to check if anyone was following her every once and a while. Admittedly, she was a little nervous, but she was more excited than anything. She was finally going on a real adventure. She would show her father that she was capable of taking care of herself. He was always so paranoid, and his dislike towards the Outlander frightened her sometimes.

Timon and Pumbaa had told her stories of her father as a cub, and Zazu was always eager to share stories about how much of a troublemaker Simba had been. She could understand why her father _disliked_ the Outlanders after what Scar had done to him and her grandfather, but the _pure hatred_ that was directed towards the Outlanders didn't quite add up to her. He said that she'd understand when she was older, but she wanted to know now.

A part of her wondered if she would get her answers in the Outlands. Well, it wasn't like she was going to talk to anyone. She just wanted to see if there was anything obviously dangerous there that was out of the ordinary. That way she might be able to help Sora and Kairi with what they were dealing with.

She checked behind her one last time, making sure that no one was following her, before creeping up onto the log that stretched across the large, oddly still riverbed below. As she got to the half way point, she realized that she was actually going to see the Outlands up close. Her ears perked up as she happily trotted around while looking at the dead area. She didn't even notice the long ending and tumbled forward.

Kiara winced as she ended up crashing into someone else. They were flying to the ground with an 'oof'. She glanced over at who she hit, noting that he was a lion slightly older than her, judging from the tuft of dark fur on his head. He was also a dark brown colour, and he did not look happy. That's when it hit her, this was an Outlander.

"What are you doing here Pride Lander?" he growled at her as he got up and moved towards her. She felt a thrill of fear pass through her as she backed away from the lion, trying to growl lightly.

He gave her an odd look and asked, "What are you doing?"

"My father said to never turn your back on an Outsider," she snapped at him while glaring.

He laughed at her mockingly and said, "I bet you do everything daddy says, don't you?" He smirked while walking past her. "You're probably a real daddy's girl."

"I do not!" she snapped, ignoring the last part because she knew that, in reality, she was a daddy's girl.

"Yeah right," he replied while walking away, jumping from the shore onto large rocks in the still river. "You probably do everything he says. I do whatever I want, whenever I want."

"Really?" she asked with amazement, her fear of him suddenly gone. She was amazed with how much freedom the other lion seemed to have.

"Yeah," he replied smugly as he looked around at her. Suddenly his ears flattened to his head and he yelled, "Look out!"

Kiara jumped first, screaming as she heard the sound of jaws snapping behind her. She looked around and saw several large crocodiles, but they weren't normal ones though, she realized quickly. Their eyes were a bright yellow, and their bodies were black rather than deep green. She knew something was wrong.

The other lion backed away from them, terrified. He may have acted tough, but he was still only a small lion, and those creatures had massive teeth. He was backing away as the creature loomed up over him.

"Move!" Kiara yelled as she jumped on the creature's jaws, slamming it shut. The other lion jumped out of the way, onto a high pile of rocks and Kiara soon joined him. They both laughed lightly but before either could say anything, the mass they were sitting on started to move and snarl.

Kiara screamed and the other lion yelled as they started jumping from snapping creature to snapping creature. They managed to get up to the log and ran to the edge of the high slopes of the Pride Lands.

They both panted before they started laughing again.

"Ha!" Kiara cried out proudly as she looked over the edge of the bank before sticking her tongue out at them and the lion laughed.

"Well, I guess you're kinda cool," the lion admitted. "I'm Kovu."

"I'm Kiara," she said moving closer to him. He stared at her oddly before backing up slightly.

For a moment she remembered her self-assigned mission and realized that the odd crocodiles (that, oddly enough, did not follow her) probably counted as a great find, but she was too distracted by her new friend.

She giggled and poked him and said, "Tag, you're it!" When he didn't respond, she poked him again and said, "Tag, you're it! You're it!"

"What are you doing?" Kovu asked her oddly.

"I'm trying to play," she said slowly.

"Play?'

"Yeah, you know," Kiara said, "for fun?"

"Kiara!"

She jumped, startled by the sudden yell. She looked around and saw Sora and Kairi bounding over to her. Automatically, she grinned at them, but her grin disappeared as she saw the frowns on their faces.

"What did you think you were doing?" Sora scolded her as they reached her. "Don't you know how dangerous is it out there?"

Kiara's ears flattened. She hadn't meant to make them worry, she wanted to help. Her spunk seemed to return as she snapped, "Yeah, well you're not my father!"

"We were still in charge of you," Kairi said softly. "We were worried something had happened to you."

"Who are you?" Sora suddenly asked, staring at Kovu oddly. He walked around the smaller lion, who seemed intimidated, even though Sora was only a little bit bigger than him.

"I-I'm Kovu," he admitted slowly.

"Kovu? I've never seen you aro—you're from the Outlands, aren't you?" Sora didn't sound angry or suspicious. He couldn't see how such a young lion could be a monster like Simba described the Outlanders.

"Yes," Kovu said hesitantly.

"Hmmmm, well you don't seem all that bad. I'm Sora, and this is Kairi," he said while Kairi smiled at him. His mood shifted quickly as he turned to Kiara and said, "You shouldn't have ran away from us! What did you think you were doing?"

"I—I just wanted to help you. I thought I could see something odd in the Outlands," Kiara replied sadly. Suddenly, her ears perked up and she said, "I did find something! There were really odd crocodiles! They were black and had yellow eyes!"

Sora and Kairi looked at each other in alarm. Sora was about to ask Kiara something else when a loud roar caused them all to jump. Simba appeared a second later, glaring at Kovu, who took a step away from the much larger lion. A second later, a lioness appeared out of the other bushes, standing in front of Kovu and growling.

"Zira," Simba said hardly, his eyes narrowing.

"Simba," she replied and prepared to lunge at him, but the growl of several other lionesses from Simba's Pride appeared. The darker shaded lioness looked over at the group and said, "Nala."

"Zira," Nala replied darkly.

"Timon, Pumbaa," Timon said while motioning to himself and the warthog that he was on top of. "Now that we all know each other, get out of our Pride Lands!"

"You're Pride Lands?" Zira snarled at him, causing Pumbaa to back up.

"You were banished to the Outlands," Simba told her strictly. "Take your cub and leave the Pride Lands."

"These lands belong to Scar," she growled angrily.

"Actually," a happy voice called out, "these lands belong to us now."

Sora looked around and froze at what he saw. Standing a few feet away from them, his bright blue hair standing out strongly against his black and grey clothes, was a young man about the same age as he was. He was grinning broadly, and it sent chills up and down Sora's spine.

"You, you're with those other people," Kairi snapped at him.

"Name's Jorix," he said calmly. "It's too bad that you're a lion. I've heard that you're quite the hottie. The things I would do to you if I could—"

Sora cut him off with a vicious growl, baring his teeth. Jorix eyed him, knowing full well that when Sarlio had hurt Kairi, Sora had cut off his arm. Given that he could use a Keyblade, and he had razor sharp teeth and claws, Jorix wasn't about to make the same mistake. Just a Keyblade was one thing, the teeth was another.

"Yeah, I'm not dealing with you when you have those teeth," Jorix said as a long, stone sword appeared in his hand. He slammed the sword into the ground, and huge stones began shooting out of it.

"Kairi!" Sora yelled as he shoved her out of the path of the appearing rocks, both of them sliding across the ground. She looked up at him quickly, and while she was slightly stunned, she was physically fine.

"See I didn't expect to see you two here," Jorix called out from his spot on top of one of the large stones, out of reach of all of the creatures below him. "I was just here on business. Oh, but you're welcome. I got rid of those Heartless for you. They're useless to us as long as Maleficent controls them."

Sora was about to jump up at him when several more stones shot out of the ground, boxing all of the lions (and Timon and Pumbaa as well) into one small spot.

"I'm almost at my daily quota," he joked and motioned at the ground again.

Kovu suddenly let out a shocked yell as the ground under him suddenly shot above the rest. Before the small cub could get over the shock of what had happened, Jorix brought the blunt side of the sword onto his head, knocking him unconscious. A rock formation then surrounded Kovu's body, and when it vanished, he was gone as well.

"No! My son!" Zira growled angrily and attempted to climb up the smooth stones.

The boy gave her a rather skeptical look before saying, "I don't have time for you." He pointed his sword at her, and a second later she was nothing more than a statue.

"Ahh!" Timon yelled out in shock as he hid behind Pumbaa's black hair. "Don't get me wrong, it's an improvement, but holy moley!"

Jorix turned his attention to Kiara, who seemed to realize what was about to happen. Simba let out an angry roar and dashed to his daughter, but a split second before he could reach her, the same thing that had happened to Kovu happened to Kiara.

She let out a scream and was about to jump off of the new cliff, but Jorix was much too fast for her. She slumped down into unconsciousness as he hit her, and vanished exactly like Kovu had.

"Well, I got my 15 for the day," Jorix said happily. "No hard feelings furries, I just try to find the kids with the strongest hearts." He glanced over at Sora and Kairi, winking at the later. "I'll see you again when you're human hottie. I'll show you a much better time than spike ever could. Look forward to it!" A rock formation twisted around him, and as he vanished, so did all of the stones, leaving only a solid Zira as proof that he had been there.

"No," Simba whispered. "No. No, no, NO! This can't be happening again! It can't! Kiara!"

Nala stared at him, a lost expression on her face. She felt numb from shock. Her baby was taken from her, just like—

The tears finally fell from the mother as she slumped to the ground. Timon and Pumbaa looked like they didn't know what to do, and the other lionesses were just as lost.

Everyone was silent for a moment except for the two grieving parents. Sora and Kairi hesitantly made their way over to them, both ashamed that they had been unable to do anything to help.

"Do you remember how I told you that we were expecting a cub, Sora?" Simba said suddenly, his voice sounding tired and wary.

"Yeah," Sora replied.

"That cub—it wasn't Kiara."

Sora and Kairi both tensed up from shock. Suddenly it made sense. Simba's cries of something happening again echoed through their minds.

"His name was Kopa," Simba whispered. "He was only young, and there was an accident, or so we thought…" He trailed off, unable to keep the sorrow from showing.

"Zira," Nala growled suddenly, "planned it all. She was the reason he died. She was the reason that he—my—I—"

"Sora," Simba said after a few tense moments of silence.

"Yeah?" he asked in a low voice, not quite sure how to handle the situation.

"Find them," Simba instructed him with a growl, "and bring her back. Make sure to do as much damage to him as you can."

"We'll bring her back, Simba," Kairi replied confidently. "That is one thing we can definitely promise you."

**VVVVVVV**

**Author's Note**

OK now everyone's probably a little confused about the little back story I used of a cub named Kopa, am I right? No, I did not make this up myself.

While Disney representatives do say that the cub at the end of The Lion King _IS_ Kiara, before they even started planning Simba's Pride, a series of books were released called The Lion King: Six New Adventures. In these books is a cub named Kopa who is Simba and Nala's son. The books are considered canon for some parts and not canon for other parts.

Many people have come up with the theory that Kopa died in an accident that Zira had planned out, and this was the real cause of her banishment and Simba's over protectiveness. Keeping this in mind though, Simba would never really offer Zira peace or anything. When Kiara tried to help her though, she wouldn't have known

Now obviously Disney's not going to actually go with this story, but it's a very widespread one to anyone who knows about Kopa. I decided to go with it. There isn't really a REAL reason I wanted to go with it, but it definitely makes losing Kiara more tragic.

Again, I want you all to know that I really do appreciate those who review, and even those who don't review but just read this. It means the world to me even though I have like no time to reply. Give me a few weeks and I'll be able to get back on that.

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	24. A Pirate's Life For Me

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Twenty-Three: A Pirate's Life For Me_

Donald and Goofy seemed oddly excited as they approached the next world. Riku knew that it was one of the ones that they had been to before, but they hadn't said a word to him about it. Mickey seemed equally as put out of the loop, and it would have been a stupid question to ask Midori if she had been there. The only worlds that she had been to were those who homed the Princesses of Heart.

As they grew steadily closer to the world, he couldn't help but notice how as fair amount of it was covered in water, just like Destiny Islands.

He let out a sigh as he thought about his (once again) destroyed home. He wondered if they would be able to restore it to what it had been before for a second time. How long had it been since his home had been destroyed? It had been March when it had happened, but he had lost track of time. It couldn't have been that long since they had left home, right?

Riku fiddled with the computer for a moment until the date popped up. He stared at it for a moment, sure that the date before him was wrong. There was no possible way that it could have already been June. That was impossible. Riku thought back over everything that had happened, the worlds that they had gone to, and realized that he had severely lost track of time somewhere along the line. Their gummi ship's warp drive had been damaged early on, so the trips between worlds usually took a week, in the least. It was brutal, but Mickey had been prepared for long periods of waiting.

The gummi ship that Chip and Dale had built for Mickey was one-of-a-kind. It wasn't brightly coloured like the other ones were, but instead was dark blue and black, blending in so much better in space than Sora's bright red one had. Not only was the design of the ship superior to the other ones, but the interior was as well. Riku remembered Sora complaining that there were only four, rather uncomfortable beds shoved into one small room, a small bathroom that only used cold water, a miniscule kitchen were they mostly had freeze-dried food, and then the rest of the ship was the bridge. Mickey's, on the other hand, had individual bedrooms, a large kitchen, several bathrooms, a living room, and the best distraction that had ever been created: a training room.

The training room was, in Riku's opinion, what made the long trips so bearable. They were able to train themselves, to stay sharp, even between words.

Riku shook his head. He had really gone off on a tangent of thought from his original place. What was he thinking about again? That's right, he had been wondering how it was already June. Given the long trips between worlds, and the amount of worlds that they had gone to, it wasn't really that surprising how much time had passed. He wondered if Sora or Kairi even noticed how much time that had passed by.

He couldn't believe that they hadn't found them yet. Sure, they had gone to worlds where they had already come and gone, but those were few and far in between. There was no rhyme or rhythm to where they were going, and he was willing to bet that Roxas and Naminé couldn't control the portals that they were traveling through.

He frowned at the thought of his two rather pure-hearted friends using portals of darkness without any protection. They probably moved through them pretty quickly, or at least he hoped they did. Their hearts could easily be attacked while in there, leaving them helpless and lost in the dark. That was one of Riku's biggest fears for them.

As he thought about his friends, he was suddenly struck with an odd thought. It was June, meaning that Kairi's sixteenth birthday (which was on May 18th) had come and gone already. He knew that, if they had keep track of time, that she would have been disappointed, because she had been promised a huge sweet sixteen party by her parents. Riku was sure that, if they did keep track of the days, that Sora would have found a way to do something for her. He doted on her way too much not to.

A sudden, odd thought struck him. He glanced over at Midori, who was sitting beside him silently. He nudged her, and she glanced at him curiously.

"When's your birthday?" he asked her causally, surprised that he hadn't thought of the question before. Wasn't that usually one of the first things kids asked each other, aside from their favorite colour? Looking back, Riku was sure it was one of the first things that Riku had said to Sora when they first met. After asking Sora if the blond guy who had saved Sora from drowning was his brother.

Wait, that didn't add up. Sora didn't have any siblings. He must have been mixing that up with someone else. It was an oddly specific event to mess up though.

Midori stared at him oddly before asking, "Why?"

"Well, I was just thinking about how my friend, Kairi's, birthday had passed by, and I realized that I didn't know when yours was." Riku was bored, and even though they could see the world in the distance, it was taking quite a while to get there. Conversation was the only way to pass the time at the moment.

She shrugged and said, "October 31st."

"Halloween?" he asked with amusement. "You know, in our world, the people who are born on that day are said to be cursed."

Midori turned to him completely, seeming honestly interested in this. She tilted her head lightly and asked, "Is everyone in your world so superstitious?"

Riku shrugged and said, "Our world is sort of like Olympus, in a way. On Destiny Islands it's believed that there are two deities: Mitsukai and Akuma. Mitsukai is the God of light, life and all thinks that are deemed positive. Akuma is the Goddess of darkness, death, and things on the negative spectrum."

"So a god and a devil then? That's what a part of my world believes," Midori said. "My world was very divided over it's religions."

"So, what do you believe then?" Riku asked her curiously. His father, while a strong military man, also took religion very seriously. No one on Destiny Islands really preached, it was more just about the stories that were told at bedtime and the general belief that everyone had. There were a few temples with statues of Mitsukai and Akuma in them, but they were just for viewing purposes. He couldn't really comprehend going into a 'holy' building and having a single person preach. It was just odd to him. He thought about what she asked and said, "No, not a god and a devil. They just control different things, but neither is superior to the other. Neither is purely good or evil. They just...are."

Midori smiled slightly and said, "You really do believe, don't you? That's good. Me, I don't. I just believe in people, and that they're doomed to be free." She caught his curious look before saying, "It's something a philosopher said a long time ago."

He nodded his head before saying, "Fair enough. Anyway, in Destiny Islands, Halloween is said to be a day cursed by Akuma and anyone born on that day is cursed. There are very few people born around the very end of October and the first of November because of that. So you'll be turning seventeen then?"

"Eighteen," she replied with a smirk. "I'm actually older than you."

"Funny that I didn't know that," he commented. "If you consider how long we've been traveling together now, you'd think I'd know a thing or two about you."

"You don't trust people," Midori said thoughtfully. "I don't blame you. I don't trust people either."

Their entire conversation had been rather quiet, and none of their friends from Disney had paid any attention to it. Instead, they were trying to figure out where to open a warp portal from the ship to the world below them. Donald and Goofy had tried to put in the coordinates that they had from before, but they wouldn't take for some reason. So they were trying to figure out where to go.

"Gawrsh," Goofy said while pointing at a screen in front of him, "it looks like it wants to take us to the Pearl, because it's right there, but it can't."

Mickey glanced over at the screen before asking, "That's...Jack Sparrow's boat, right?" He had to pause to think of who Donald and Goofy said that they knew here.

"Captain Jack Sparrow," Goofy correct with amusement.

Donald snorted before saying, "He gets dramatic when you get it wrong. And don't call his ship a boat. It's his baby."

Mickey nodded before turning to Riku and Midori and asking, "Have either of you been here before?"

"No," Riku replied, "only Land of Dragons, Beast's Castle, Twilight Town and a few others."

Midori shrugged and said, "If there's no Princess of Heart, I haven't been there."

Mickey nodded again and turned to Donald and Goofy. "Maybe you guys should tell us a bit about this world before we go."

"We're probably going to be spending a lot of time of ships," Donald warned, "so I hope no one gets sick." It wasn't a problem for him, because when Donald was younger, before Disney Castle was even built and when he had only just started dabbling with magic, he had been a sailor.

"It's a pirate world," Goofy said thoughtfully, "and not the type like Captain Hook. These guys are the real deal. Most of the pirates seem to believe in a lot of supernatural stuff too."

"Midori, don't get insulted if some people say that you shouldn't be on the ship," Donald added. "It's considered bad luck to bring a woman on board. Jack shouldn't care though, because he had Elizabeth on his ship before. Actually, now that I think about it, you should probably sick close to Riku if we're in a town or something."

"What? Why?" she demanded. Midori was good at keeping her face stoic, but Riku knew that she had to be annoyed at being told what she should or shouldn't do. Given that she came from a matriarchal society, it probably made it worse that it was a man ("...er...male duck," he corrected mentally), ordering her around.

"There are a lot of men down there that would love to get their hands on someone like you," Goofy explained, his tone a cautious one. "A lot of them don't have much self-restraint either."

Midori stiffened a bit, understanding exactly what he meant. She was a very strong girl and she could easily take care of herself, but the thought of rape still frightened her a bit.

Riku glanced at her and could tell that she was a bit uncomfortable, but he didn't say anything to try to comfort her. Odds were that she would just deny being a little freaked out and say that she would be fine going on her own.

"Okay guys," Mickey said as he stood up, "coordinates are locked in and we're all ready to go."

"Lets go then," Riku replied as he too stood up. Maybe, just maybe, Sora and Kairi would be on this world, or they might at least have left behind a sign that they were still alive.

**VVVVVVVV**

Whatever Riku was expecting when he felt landed in a town called Tortuga, it wasn't what he ended up seeing. Yes, Donald and Goofy had implied that this world wasn't exactly a friendly one, but they hadn't mentioned how lively it really was. The second he appeared, he was assaulted by the loud, echoing yells of the town's inhabitants. He couldn't say that he liked how loud this place was, because in comparison, Destiny Islands was much quieter. The only places he'd ever heard with such a high caliber of noise was the worlds that were under attack.

His original thought was that the town was being attacked by Heartless or Nobodies, but as he looked around, he realized that it was just like one massive party. Some people were drunkenly singing, dancing, and talking while others were starting massive fights. Some others seemed to be more secretive, speaking in corners, while some seemed to just be wandering around. If he was honest with himself, Riku wasn't quite sure what to do.

Donald and Goofy had never actually gone into Tortuga the last time that they had been there. They had seen the chaos from the deck of the ship, but that was about it. Jack had forbidden them from stepping on land when they were there. Actually, it was Sora specifically who wasn't allowed to leave. Jack might have seemed like only a manipulative, drunken man who only cared about himself, but he did subtle things to show that he actually did appreciate other people. Locking 15-year-old Sora in the captain's cabin so that he wouldn't wander into the violent town was an example of this. In all fairness, if Sora hadn't been pouting so much, he would have realized that he could just use the Keyblade to open the door. Still, Donald and Goofy hadn't pointed it out. If Jack didn't want Sora there, then Sora wasn't going there.

Now that they were actually wandering through the town, Donald and Goofy could both see why Jack hadn't wanted the young, and fairly naïve Sora to come last time.

The group stuck closely together as they wandered through the lively town. At one time, Riku had to stop to do a double take when he saw a rather dirty man and woman romping against the wall before he kept going. He glanced at Midori and asked, "Were those people really having sex in a crowded street?"

She looked back and her nose wrinkled in disgust. She glanced back at him before saying, "Yeah. I'm willing to bet both of them have at least ten different diseases."

Suddenly, the doors to one of the taverns flew open and a man was thrown into the mud in front of them. Most people laughed hysterically at this before retreating to their drinks, money and women. Only a lone figure walked over to the one on the ground, squatting over them before saying, "What has the world done to you, James Norrington?"

Donald and Goofy both perked up, recognizing that voice. "Elizabeth!"

The figure, who Riku would have sworn was a boy, turned to face them. Beneath the clothes and the grime, he could tell that it was actually a woman. She had done a pretty good job at disguising herself though.

"Donald! Goofy!" she said with surprise and smiled warmly at them. Elizabeth was quickly distracted as Norrington let out a groan. She sighed before turning back to them and asking, "Why are you here? Is something wrong?"

"Yeah," Donald said with a nod. "Have you seen anything weird?"

"More things than you would care to know about," she replied. "None of them you'd be interested in though. Do you think you could help me move him?" She motioned to the man, who was still lying on the ground, and although he was conscious, he was just groaning. It was a pitiful sight.

With a bit of disgust, Riku and Midori helped the man stand up. It was a silent walk to an abandoned house that Elizabeth had found. It was old and worn, and there were huge wharf rats around, but she wasn't planning on staying in it for very long. Once Norrington was snoring away on the nearby pile of old, ruined sails, Elizabeth was about to sit down to talk to them.

"Why are you here, Elizabeth?" Donald asked her curiously.

"Yeah," Goofy agreed, "and why are you dressed up like a boy?"

"I'm trying to find Will," she said. "He and I were brought up on charges of piracy just before we could have our wedding and were imprisoned. Lord Cutler Beckett, the man who charged us, sent Will on a mission. If he could get Jack Sparrow's compass and bring it back to Beckett, then we would be free. He went, but my father had little faith in him and Jack, and he broke me out of the prison, but he was caught. Luckily, I managed to sneak away before anyone could catch me. I confronted Beckett and took the papers that would secure our freedom. I dressed like this to get on a ship unnoticed, and I fooled the pirates into coming to Tortuga. Don't ask how I did that, it's a long story. I'm worried, because I've seen Jack here, but I don't know where Will is."

"I guess we should confront Jack then," Mickey said thoughtfully. "You haven't noticed anything odd that would pertain to us, but he might have."

"It's possible," she agreed while staring at Mickey. "I don't mean to be rude, but I don't know your name. Or yours." She nodded towards Riku and Midori.

"Oh, I'm Mickey," the mouse said while motioning to himself. "I've been friends with Donald and Goofy nearly all my life."

"My name's Riku," the silver-haired boy said. "Sora might have mentioned me, I don't actually know."

Elizabeth nodded and said, "Yes, he mentioned you, but that was in between is constant rambling about a girl named Kairi." Riku shook his head with amusement at this.

Elizabeth turned her attention to the female of the group who said, "I'm Midori."

"Well, it's nice to meet all of you. If you don't mind me asking, where is Sora?" Her brown eyes looked around the room, as if expecting Sora to just suddenly appear out of thin air. In all fairness, if they did appear, it would be pretty much out of thin air, but Riku doubted that Sora and Kairi were going to show up in this world.

"We don't actually know," Mickey answered for Riku, who was getting tired of explaining this to anyone who had met Sora before. "Their home was attacked and they got separated from all the rest of the survivors. We haven't seen him or Kairi since."

"I hope they're okay," Elizabeth said sincerely. "Sora was such a nice boy. Albeit, he was stubborn and naïve, but a nice boy still, and from what I heard Kairi is a sweet girl. Although, I do only know of Sora's point of view of her, which just fell short of worship."

Everyone laughed and Riku nudged Midori as he said, "Remember our conversation earlier? Well Sora doesn't believe in either god from home, he does have a shrine to Kairi."

Midori laughed and said, "It's all a joke now until you find the hidden shrine in his closet."

"For all we know there could very well be on in there. I'm terrified to even think of opening his closet door," Riku said. He would have loved to say he was joking, and from her laugh, Midori thought that he was. After he didn't laugh though, she knew that he was dead serious. After returning from their journey, Sora was skeptical about opening the closet, so there was no way in hell that Riku was.

**VVVVVVVV**

They followed Elizabeth towards the Black Pearl. Riku couldn't help but admire the ship as they approached it. Coming from an island community, the ocean was a huge part of every islander's life. It had always been like that. While most of the big ships and boats were up to date, there were still a few of the old boats around, for historical purposes only. They sailed around the island twice a year, once during the festival held on the summer solstice to celebrate Mitsukai called the Midday Moon Festival, and once during the festival on the winter solstice to celebrate Akuma, call the Midnight Sun Festival.

Elizabeth picked up speed while Norrington seemed to hold back, still sick from the large amount of alcohol that he had consumed. She was heading right towards a pirate that reminded Riku a bit of a rockstar before saying, "Captain Sparrow!"

"Come to join me crew lad? Welcome aboard," he called back, barely paying attention.

"I'm here to find the man I love," she replied, and Jack came to an abrupt stop.

"I'm deeply flattered son but my first and only love is the sea," Jack said, making an odd hand motion to the man he was walking with.

"Meaning William Turner, Captian Sparrow," Elizabeth said as she finally reached the pirate.

He turned around and looked at her oddly before his eyes widened and he said, "Elizabeth!" He leaned back to the man standing a few steps behind him and whispered, "Hide the rum." He grinned broadly and asked, "You know, these clothes do not flatter you at all. It should be a dress or nothing. I happen to have not dress in my cabin."

Riku snorted, unable to keep the grin off of his face. He would be the first to admit that he had become a bit of a flirt with the girls in school once he came home, but how couldn't he? So many of them were interested in him, calling him mysterious, handsome and so many other things. The end result of that (aside from Sora and Kairi saying that he was now a junior playboy) was that he had accumulated many pickup lines. This one had to be one of the best ones he had ever heard. The least effective? Probably. It was still one of the best though.

Midori elbowed him in the side, but he caught sight of the grin on her face.

"Jack," she said seriously, "I know Will came to find you. Where is he?" She knew he wasn't there, because if he was, he would have been at her side already, or he would have at least been with Jack in the tavern earlier.

Jack cleared his throat and fidgeted uncomfortably until his dark eyes caught sight of the people standing behind her. He suddenly brushed passed her and said, "Dorald! Guffy! It be good to see ya again mates. Where be Zola?"

"Who?" Midori asked while casting a confused look at Riku, who just shrugged in reply.

"It's Donald and Goofy," the duck reminded the pirate warily, "and we don't know where Sora is. We haven't heard from him and Kairi in months?"

"Kairi?" he asked with interest. "So he ran off with a girl? Good lad, not an eunuch like Will." He cast his eyes to the three strangers that he didn't know, ignoring Elizabeth's attempt to catch his attention. "And who might you be, little lady?"

"My name's Midori," she replied warily, moving a bit closer to Riku and away from the pirate. Her motion caused Jack's attention to shift to Riku, and he automatically looked a little uncomfortable. It was no surprise, considering Riku was a few inches taller than him and had more muscle mass.

"I'm Riku," the young man informed him.

"Ahh yes, Zol—Sora mentioned you. And you…mouse?" Jack looked confused for a moment before his eyes turned to Donald and Goofy again. He shouldn't have been surprised that an anthropomorphic duck and dog were friends with an anthropomorphic mouse.

"Mickey," the mouse introduced himself simply. He dared not put the title king in front of his name, knowing that it could bring nothing but trouble. Luckily, for once, Donald and Goofy seemed to catch this and didn't add in that he was a king.

Jack was about to say something else when Elizabeth grabbed his arm, forcing him to face her while saying his name sternly. "Where is Will?"

Mickey couldn't help but notice how Jack seemed to think for a moment before the pirate said, "Darling, I am truly unhappy to tell you this, but through an unfortunate and entirely unforeseeable series of events that have nothing whatsoever to do with me, poor Will has been press ganged into Davy Jones' crew."

"Davy Jones?" Riku asked skeptically. He grew up in a sea community, and he had heard stories of Davy Jones in his world too. He was willing to bet that the Davy Jones here was completely different though. It made him wonder if, perhaps, someone had traveled to this world in the past and brought the stories back with them.

Jack nodded and then Norrington, who had been rather silently aside from his occasional gag, lunged towards the rail and threw up over it violently, causing them all to turn and stare at him with disgust.

After a moment, he looked up and stumbled forward, saying, "Oh please. The captain of the Flying Dutchman?"

"You look bloody awful, what are you doing here?" Jack asked him, disgust clearly visible on his face.

"You hired me," Norrington said simply. "I can't help that your standards are lacking."

Jack stared at him for a moment before shooting back, "You smell funny!"

Donald and Goofy both snickered at that.

"Jack!" Elizabeth scolded, causing the pirate to turn his attention to her again. His expression swiftly turned into a concerned frown, reminding Riku of a child who knew that they were about to get growled at for something that they had done wrong. "All I want is to find Will."

Jack looked like he was about to say something, when an odd look passed across his face. He had looked away, not wanting to look her in the eyes while he so bluntly lied (as Riku knew that he was going to do), but his eyes shot towards her face again with interest. "Are you certain? Is that was you really want most?"

Elizabeth looked slightly startled at the question, but said, "Of course."

Jack grinned at this, and there was something rather unsettling about it. It was like grin from a Heartless that had cornered its prey. "Because, I would think that you'd want to find a way to save Will most."

She looked at him with rapt attention, but Riku could see the traces of doubt on her face. "And you have a way of doing that?"

"Well," Jack began, "there is a chest—"

"Oh dear," Norrington interrupted.

"A chest of unknown size and origin," Jack continued, having only spared the former commodore a quick glance.

"What contains the still beating heart of Davy Jones," a shorter pirate added as he walked passed, carrying a large crate with the help of a tall, skinny pirate with a wooden eye.

"And whoever posses that chest," Jack continued, "posses the leverage to force Jones to do whatever he or she wants." He grinned a bit at her, adding in what he was sure to be the clincher, "Including saving brave William from his grim fate."

"You don't actually believe him, do you?" Norrington asked her, sarcasm strongly visible in his voice.

Elizabeth glanced back at Donald and Goofy, who just shrugged. They had seen things just as weird as a heart still beating in a box.

"How would we find it?" she asked when she turned her attention back to Jack. Norrington groaned with annoyance at her willingness to go along with such an insane sounding story.

Jack grinned broadly and reached down, pulling something off of his belt. He held it up, revealing a square, black object. "With this. My compass is unique."

"Unique here having the meaning of broken," Norrington pointed out.

Jack cast him a glance before quickly turning back and glancing at everyone else as he said, "True enough. This compass does not point north."

"Where does it point?" Riku asked with interest, his eyes focusing on the object.

Jack smirked and glanced at Riku for only a second before turning his attention solely onto Elizabeth as he said, "It points to the thing you want most in this world."

The young woman stared at the compass with both skepticism and a bit of hope before asking, "Jack, are you telling the truth?"

"Every word, Love," he answered quickly. "And what you want most in this world is to find the chest of Davy Jones." He pressed the compass into her hands.

"To save Will?" she asked him.

"By finding the chest of Davy Jones," he repeated. Quickly, Jack flipped open the top of the compass and dashed away, leaving it solely in her hands.

She watched the needle on it spin around, focusing her thoughts on the chest of Davy Jones. She was starting to doubt that it would actually work when the needle stopped moving.

Jack peaked at it and called out, "Mr. Gibbs!"

"Captain?" the pirate that Jack had been with earlier called back.

"We have our heading!"

"Finally," he said before turning and walking towards the ship. "Cast of those lines, weigh anchor…" His voice faded as he walked farther away from them.

"So, I'm assuming there must be those weird creatures around if ye be here," Jack said to those who weren't from his world. "Best be coming along too, just in case."

"Don't feel like fighting any Nobodies, Jack?" Donald asked with amusement.

"Unless I get meself one of those fancy blades that Zola has, I'd rather not," Jack admitted. He looked back at Elizabeth and motioned for her to get on the ship.

Riku was sure that this was going to be interesting.

**VVVVVVVV**

**Author's Note**

I know I updated yesterday, but I'm going to try to start updating more quickly, like I did with the original. Don't expect another chapter tomorrow though, because in all honesty, I'm having trouble with the PotC chapters. Probably because if I don't know what to write I just fill it with S/K fluff. I'm cool like that.

Anyway, to get myself unstuck I'm watching the movie as I write. That's why the dialogue is pretty much right on. I take no credit for that. What tried to work in was more thoughts and feelings, especially of the people who don't actually belong in the PotC plotline.

So for the next two chapters after this one we'll be seeing more of Riku, Midori and Jack.

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	25. A Family Affair

**Shadows of a Dream**

_Chapter Twenty-Four – A Family Affair_

Shadows danced in front of his vision, blocking out half of the scenery in front of him. He hesitantly took a few steps forward, wincing as his footsteps echoed loudly around him. It was the only sound that he could hear, and he didn't like making a lot of noise if he could help it. He couldn't feel anything, and he could just barely see what was in front of him. It was like his didn't truly exist, like he was in his own little world consisting of him, his footsteps and the shadows. It was getting darker with each step he took, and he was beginning to feel suffocated, just like he had a few times when he was lost in the realm of darkness with Mickey.

Suddenly, he felt something different. It was warm and calming, making him feel so much better, but at the same time, it was sad. He turned his attention towards where the warmth was coming from, and something grabbed a hold of his wrist and pulled him. He let out a surprised yell as he stumbled through the shadows, wincing as the light erupted in his eyes.

Riku looked around, trying to figure out who had dragged him from the ever-approaching darkness. He could see a figure in the distance with black hair, but he couldn't tell anything else about them. He wanted to yell out, knowing the person had dragged him from a nightmarish place, but then she was gone.

He felt something brush passed him, and turned around. A stunned look appeared on Riku's face as he saw Sora and Roxas running in front of him. They looked the same as when he has seen them (well, Sora) months ago, but something felt different about them, even from afar. He rushed to catch up to them, wanting to know what was going on and why he was here.

It was only then that Riku realized where he actually was. It was a bare hallway that reminded him a bit of Castle Oblivion from all of its whiteness and intricate patterns. The only way he could tell that this wasn't a vision of Castle Oblivion was that the patterns on the walls didn't match.

Suddenly, both Sora and Roxas stopped running. Riku had been trying to catch up, and ended up sliding across the slippery floor, ready to collide with the other two. Much to his shock though, he went straight through them. With confusion, Riku looked back at them and saw that they had stopped in front of another hall, horror splayed across their identical faces. He knew why a second later.

A woman rushed out of the hall, a brown cloak covering her body as she held a small bundle close, blood seeping through the blankets. Riku felt horror and bile build up in him as he realized that it was a baby, and it was badly injured.

The castle suddenly shook, and the woman fell to the ground, her hood falling off in the process. Sora and Roxas both looked stunned, and Riku couldn't help but gape with disbelief. It was Sora's mother, who looked younger than he remembered. In all fairness, Amaya Hikari had been only a few years shy of 50, having had Sora later on in life when she was 31 (something about complications, he couldn't remember what Sora had told him), and here she look like she was in her 20s or 30s. That's when it occurred to him. If she was around 30 there than that meant that the injured baby in her arms was-

Tears streaked down her face as she pushed herself to her knees and looked at the bundle in her arms. Riku couldn't help but approach, staring at the bundle with growing anticipation. The child was probably barely over six months old, but already he had a bundle of dark brown hair, and as his eyes opened weakly, Riku could make out a pair of cerulean eyes. There was no doubt in his mind that this child, so badly injured, was Sora. The baby didn't look like it was crying, just getting weaker and weaker.

After a moment, Ayame pushed herself up all of the way, holding her baby tighter, as she started running again. Sora looked like he was about to run after her, but she vanished. Or maybe it was them that were vanishing, because the pristine white halls were suddenly replaced with a room made with white stone walls, polished marble floors, and decorated extravagantly with gold, silver and gemstones. Sora and Roxas looked just as confused and Riku felt.

Sora was looked around at everything, when Roxas grabbed his arm and swung him around so that they were facing the same direction. Riku moved down the thin hallway to where they were, and gaped at what he saw.

There was a tall figure in front of them, wearing a long white cloak with a hood to hide his features. His hands were held together as if in a prayer, before his hands shot out in front of him. A stunned look passed over Riku's face when he saw a glass heart appear in the air in front of the man. The stone started glowing before a gentle beam of light surrounded it, appearing from the hole in the ceiling. It glowed with stronger intensity, until there was a suddenly blast of light.

And then everything went black

**VVVVVVVVVV**

Riku jerked awake quickly, steadying himself as he almost toppled over in the dirty, ragged hammock that he had been given when boarding the Pearl. He let out a deep but quiet breath and wiped the sweat off of his forehead. It was disgustingly hot in the ship, even though he knew it wasn't all that hot outside because he could feel the nip of the cold air through some of the cracks in the siding. He quickly came to the conclusion that it was so disgustingly hot because all of the crew, except for the few caring for the ship at night, were packed into one room. Riku didn't like to think of himself as a pretty boy or anything, but he wished that they could have been with pirates from a little more of a modern world, particularly one with a shower. Their natural stench was profound, and only adding to that was the smell of vomit and alcohol.

He looked over at his three anthropomorphic friends, noticing that Mickey seemed to have his ears covered, and Goofy has his nose covered. It made sense, because Mickey's large ears made his hearing very sensitive, and he didn't like to hear the sounds of a drunk pirate vomiting every once and a while, and Goofy was some sort of dog-man, so his sense of smell would have been strong. He felt bad for them.

Riku quickly and quietly rolled out of his hammock, landing on the floor neatly. He couldn't stand the vicious smells anymore, it gave him more of a headache than he already had. On top of his confusing dream, the sickening smells and the loud snoring, he could feel worry coursing through him for different reasons. He was worried about some selfish things like if he would end up contracting some sort of disease while there, he was worried that he would never be able to scrub out the smell of alcohol and vomit and various other things. Then he was worried for his friends. He was worried that Sora and Kairi had met a horrible fate already, he was worried that they wouldn't be able to stop Crysita, Lilanti, Sarlio, Jorix and Carverin, and a part of his was just plain worried about Midori (and, to an extent, Elizabeth).

Jack had been polite enough to offer the two young women to stay somewhere else and not with a horde of men who, while not as intimidating as some of the sleazebags he had seen in Tortuga, would probably try to take their chances with them. Jack had, of course, offered for them to stay in his room with him, only to be slapped in the face twice. He had turned, look at Riku and said, "I deserved that." So, instead, Jack let them stay in his cabin and he stayed awake at the wheel, keeping a large jar of dirt close to him at all times.

Riku walked out of the room and took in a deep breath of the fresh, salty air. It was a little cool out, but it was refreshing compared to the accommodations that he had been given. He enjoyed the smell of the ocean, images of home passing through his mind, but only for a moment. Looking back on the past wouldn't help the situation. What kind of mumbo-jumbo had Sora muttered to him before? Hakuna Matata? He had no clue where his friend had got such a saying, but it was Sora, so for all he knew the brunet made it up.

His eye suddenly caught a shifting figure over by the edge of the ship. He looked around and saw the light, bouncing off of dark green hair, and he knew instantly who it was. How many people did he know with green hair, after all?

"Midori?" he called out as quietly as possibly, not wanting to startle her into falling in the water or something. He had seen some pretty nasty looking sharks in the water.

She looked around curiously, her brown eyes locking on to his after a moment. She grinned a bit and said, "Hey Silver, what are you doing up?"

He shrugged in a way that implied there wasn't a big deal to his being awake so early and asked, "What about you?"

Instead of going into some childish I-asked-you-first mode, Midori shrugged like he had and said, "I don't like boats much. Being below deck makes me feel sick. I'm fine in the open though. You know I don't believe your little shrug, right?"

Riku sighed and asked, "Do you think dreams mean anything?"

"Of course they do," she admonished, "well, some of them at least. Sometimes they're just dirty fantasies or things you would wish to happen. Tell me Riku, have you been having nasty dreams?"

A pale pink tint managed to grace Riku's features, if only for a moment before he sent a small glare at her and said, "Not that type of dream, Tree-Head."

"That's the best name you can think of?" she asked teasingly before becoming serious. "Dreams can mean something, yeah. Sometimes they're more prophetic, sometimes our past, and sometimes just a reflection of our hopes and fears. Why? What did you see?"

"Sora and Roxas, his Nobody, were there. Usually, if Roxas is outside of Sora, he looks like a ghost or something, but he was—what's the word?"

"Corporeal?" she suggested.

"We'll go with that," he agreed, "anyway, they were in this white hallway, and Sora's mother showed up. Sora was with her, as a baby, and he was hurt really bad. I don't understand where they were though, because Sora was born on Destiny Islands and there's nothing like that there."

"Are you completely sure about that?" Midori asked slowly after a moment of thought.

Riku stared off into the distance at the slowly rising sun and said, "When Kairi showed up, Sora was the one who found her. She actually fell into the water like a meteor, and Sora went in and rescued her. I never thought about it at the time, but looking back, it was amazing that he could drag her out of the water because of how tiny he was. I mean, he was only five and I was six. I know this seems off topic (he had seen her about to question the relevance of the story) but long story short, Kairi's arrival made us ask if we'd been on the islands for all our lives or not. My parents and Sora's mother said that we were." He looked almost wistful as he remembered his happy, simple childhood.

Midori smiled slightly at his expression before asking, "Was that all you saw in your dream?"

He broke out of his thoughts and said, "No. We were in a giant room, and there was a giant diamond heart in the middle of the room and a man in a white cloak doing something."

Her small smile slid off of her face, replaced by a thoughtful look. She glanced up at the sky and said, "I've heard of a diamond heart. It's said to be able to channel a lot of power into a chosen person." She moved forward, resting her elbows on her thighs and placing her chin in her hands. "It vanished a long time ago when the world it was in was destroyed. I don't know why you'd be dreaming about that though."

"Where do you hear all of this stuff?" Riku asked her with both amazement and suspicion.

She frowned a bit, glancing out at the water and said, "Crysita was talking about it. What I told you, I heard her tell the others."

Riku jerked up from his slumped position quickly and stared at her with wide eyes. She tilted her head, staring at him oddly as he stared back with his shock.

"What?" she finally asked, breaking their stalemate.

"Don't you realize what you just said? What if that's what they're looking for!" he said with excitement in his voice.

"One problem with that, it's gone," she pointed out.

"You said it vanished. You never said it was destroyed. If it's still out there somewhere and they're hunting it...getting rid of anyone who might try to get in their way in the process..."

Her eyes widened in realization, but then a doubtful look passed over them as she asked, "And the children they're taking?"

"I don't know. Maybe they're the key to finding it," he suggested with a shrug. "We should tell Mickey!"

He was about to go back when she grabbed his arm and said, "Hi oh Silver, wait a minute. Let him sleep. You must be able to see how exhausted he is."

Riku was about to argue before he realized how true her words actually were. Mickey was running on fumes lately, and even though it was noisy and smelled horrible down there, he deserved all of the sleep that he could get.

There was a sudden yell of 'land ho' from above, causing both Riku and Midori to turned around with both interest and shock. Neither of them had realized that Morty, a rather short pirate, was up in the crows' nest.

A second later, Jack came stumbling over to where they were, his jar of dirt clutched in one arm and his spyglass in the other. It was amusing, watching him struggle with it. Riku offered to hold the jar of dirt, but Jack just glared at him and said to get his own. Finally, he peered through the spyglass and stared at an island in the distance with a large grin.

"Why have we been looking for this island?" Midori asked Jack curiously.

"To find the chest of Davy Jones, o course," he said to her.

"Won't he know something's wrong and go after it himself?" Riku suggested. "I mean, it _is_ his heart."

"That's the beauty of it mate," Jack said to Riku. "Jones can only come ashore once every ten years, and that time has already passed."

The three of them looked towards the visible shoreline, Jack staring at it was a large grin on his face. He glanced at his jar of dirt and said, "Tomorrow I'll be free." He suddenly looked around and said, "Where be that smelly fellow? The former Commodore? One that looks like slop now?"

"Norrington?" Riku suggested with a raised eyebrow.

Jack pointed one of his dirty fingers at Riku's face, stopping only a centimeter away as he said, "You, young man, are a smart lad. I wish you much rum and women in the future."

Midori rolled her eyes and asked, "Have you been into the rum again, Captain Jack?"

"Aye lassie, I have," he admitted happily. "Life's to short, so drink to it while ya can."

"I'll keep that in mind," the green-haired girl said dryly. "Are you going to round up the crew to head to shore?"

"No, we be sailing two boats only. Just you two, myself, Lizzie, Dorald, Guppy, Mikey, the smelly one, maybe those two creepy ones and me," he said while turning to walk away, stumbling in the process.

"Are you sure you don't want me to hold that?" Riku asked his while motioning to the jar of dirt. He received a dark glare from Jack, who hugged it close to him as if it was some sort of precious treasure. He stumbled a bit more, but treated the dirt as if it was some sort of baby.

Midori rolled her eyes and let out a sigh before turning to lean against the rail of the boat, watching the sunrise across the water. She stared at it for a moment before summoning her Keyblade, holding it out towards the sky. Riku never knew why, but he always caught her comparing the colourful blade to the sunrises and sunsets of the world, as if hoping to one day find a match. He leaned beside her, staring out at it before saying, "On the very first day of school, the last day before Christmas break, the first day back and the last day of school, Sora, Kairi and I would row out to the play island and watch the sun rise for no reason but that we could. Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever see that sunrise again."

Her Keyblade vanished and she said, "Be positive."

"Do you ever wish that you could go home?"

"No," she said without hesitation. "I don't have many happy memories there really. Never got along with my father, my mother was cold and stoic, and my sister was always off in her own world. We took the duties bestowed on us very seriously, so there was little time for play. Our formal education ended when we were fifteen, and then we were assigned a job based on our talents."

"Wow," Riku replied with amazement, "no free will at all. What did you do?"

"I was a bodyguard," she admitted while grinning. "I was the fastest in my class, and the best trained in hand-to-hand combat because of how harsh my mother was on my sister and I."

"To who?"

Midori shrugged and said, "I might tell you someday, I might not. For now, I'd rather keep that with me."

"Fair enough," he admitted while staring over at the land.

"Mr. Gibbs!" Jack yelled loudly. They all heard a loud thump from below the deck, and a moment later the first mate was in front of them.

"Aye Captain?"

"Prepare two boats," he instructed, "only a few of us will be heading to shore."

"If ya insist," Gibbs said before turning and barking out commands to ready two of the longboats.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

"Sora makes the weirdest friends," Riku commented as he and Goofy paddled their dingy towards the shore. King Mickey and Donald both agreed whole-heartedly. He tried listening in on the conversation Midori was having with Captain Jack in the other small boat, but all he could get was that they were arguing about something.

Riku's mind turned solely to the girl. She wasn't a sweet girl, or overly peppy, but now that he had gotten to know her, he found that she wasn't quite as harsh as he had originally assumed. She was stubborn, serious and could be distant and nasty when in certain situations. Still, her anger was much more controlled compared to Kairi's. The redhead, when she was truly angry (something Sora in particular feared) would just explode with rage that she usually kept pent up. Midori never bothered trying to suppress her anger or dislike for something, so she was more in control of her actions. Still, despite the sarcastic comments and her standoffish attitude, Riku like her. Probably because she was so different from what he was used to dealing with.

Although she was newer to a Keyblade, and Riku could easily overpower her with his, she could kick his ass in hand-to-hand combat, something she constantly rubbed into his face. She had speed on her side though, but Riku's sheer power still always won.

He broke out of his thoughts as they hit the beach, and all of them turned to Elizabeth. She got out of the boat and started walking around with the compass, a confused and rather flushed look to her face until she sat on the ground with a huff.

"This stupid thing certainly does not work," she said and tossed it to the ground.

Jack looked down at the compass and said, "Yes it does, and you're sitting on it!" He came forward and shooed her out of the way. He tossed Norrington a shovel and said, "Start digging."

The former Commador rolled his eyes but went to work anyway. Everyone backed off as Norrington started digging.

"Gawrsh, why is he the only one digging?" Goofy whispered. "Isn't that kinda mean?"

"Shut up you big palooka," Donald whispered back, as much as he could.

Riku sat down on the sand, staring out at the ocean with fascination. Midori came and sat beside him. She stared out at the water and said, "I like the ocean and the warmth. Where I come from it's usually cold and there are very few oceans."

"I thought most people from your world were tanned or dark?" Riku asked while raising an eyebrow.

She didn't look at him as she said, "Just because it's cold doesn't mean we don't go outside, but at the same time just because people have darker complexions doesn't mean we're always outside."

"You know, you've been with us for months now and we still don't know much about you. I mean, I think I know a fair bit, but you haven't really shared with Mickey, Donald or Goofy really," Riku observed. Both turned when they heard Jack yell something at Pintel and Ragetti, something about watching his dirt, but then turned back to the ocean.

"It's nothing against them," she said after a moment, drawing odd patterns into the soft sand, "I'm just not always comfortable around them. Besides, I really don't know all that much about you either. You're an enigma, Silver."

"How so?"

"You fight for your friends," she said, not looking at him, "and because they dwell in the light, or closer to the light, you fight for that as well, but it's not your nature. You have a dark aura to you. Not a black one, but a darker shade of grey. You wield Way to Dawn, meaning you're in the night but are heading towards the morning. You've walked the darkness in a way more complete than Sora has and you are nearly the opposite of Kairi."

"How can you know all that?" he asked, no emotion on his face.

"You might hide your emotions to most, but I don't look at what's on the outside. I can feel things, and I'm feeling you right now (his cheeks got a pale tint of pink to them, but it went unnoticed by Midori). Certain people have a natural ability to feel things like I can. I also got the feeling, although it was fuzzy because it was only a dream, that there's more to Sora than beats the eye. From what I felt, he goes with his gut instincts (Riku nodded at this) but I think it's more than just that. He feels like I do, but he isn't aware of it."

"I don't understand," Riku said after a moment.

"You don't need to yet," she said as she finally turned to him. For a moment Riku looked uncomfortably in her brown eyes, feeling rather revealed before both jumped at the sound of a loud clank.

They stood up and turned around as Jack whooped happily, Elizabeth stared at it with wonder and exclaimed, "It's real!"

"You actually were telling the truth," Norrington added

"I do that quite a lot. Yet people are always surprised," Jack muttered.

"With good reason."

Everyone turned around and there stood a rather unhappy Will Turner.

One thing Riku could tell that this was about to get a lot more interesting.

**Author's Note**

I'm super sorry for the long wait for an update.

There are some HUGE differences coming from this fic compared to the original ones. Some of them are even forcing me to make more changes to Shadows of Reality: Final Mix than I originally anticipated.

I'm currently working on that as well as the rewrite of Shadows of Beginnings. I'm retitling it as 'Shadows of Sleep: Final Mix'. The storyline for that one is going to be much more heavily based off of BBS than the original was, so it won't be out for a while since I want to play through BBS first. I'm having an awfully hard time rewriting that one because of how different it's going to be. Almost enough for it to be it's own story.

Doing things in 3s and 5s is overrated though, don't you agree? That's why I'm doing this in 4s. After the next two final mixes come out (cause you'll need to have read them to understand the next one) I'm going to start working on and posting the sequel to Shadows of Reality and the finale of my series: Shadows of Destiny.

For the record, it's not one based on their children or anything like that. It's all them.

Oh, btw, if anyone says 'release the kraken' I'm destroying everything.

Love you all!

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	26. Hello Beastie

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Twenty-Five: Hello Beastie_

The images passed before his eyes, like a movie that was moving too fast. He wanted to his the pause button to stop and observe, but he couldn't. It was like he was strapped down to a table, his eyes forced open, only to watch image after image pass by. It was almost painful, to be honest.

He was inside a white room, following the Keyblade Master and his Nobody. He saw them stop, a woman with an injured child appearing in front of them, and he half wondered if the child was injured because of them. Then the scene changed. He knew exactly what he was looking at then. This was the one thing that they were working towards, the one thing that they needed to find to make all of their plans unfold.

Then he woke up.

Carverin shot up in his bed, panting with sweat on his face. Contrary to popular belief, all of them did sleep at some point of time, but it seemed like Crysita was always working and never sleeping so it was understandable where that idea came from.

He took in a deep breath and thought about what he saw. He knew what the glass heart was and how important it was to their mission, but he didn't quite know why it was all that important. None of them could control the power that it channeled. Not that he knew of.

A thoughtful look appeared on his face. He had the feeling that Crysita knew more than she was letting on about the glass heart and it's power. Then again, he also had a feeling that she was manipulating them to fit her goals. He knew for a fact that she went behind everyone's back, planning and plotting things. She would speak to Sarlio about one then and then turn and talk to Lilanti about another. He and Jorix were left out of the loop entirely, but he also knew that whatever she spoke to Sarlio about, it was different from what she said to Lilanti. She was cold, calculating, and she was getting them all to dance exactly how she wanted them to, and most of them didn't even realize it.

He dared not bring it up with Jorix, because he was a loudmouth who was pretty much Crysita's attack dog. Add to that his sudden fascination with the Keyblade Master's girl, he was a loose cannon who only worked for his goal. Carverin knew that he was probably clinically insane as was, but it seemed to be getting worse by the day. He wouldn't care what their 'leader' did. Pointing out the manipulation to Sarlio or Lilanti would only lead to Crysita finding out, and if she didn't want him to know whatever she was doing, it could only end badly for him.

No, he would be silent about his observations for now, just as he would be silent about his dream.

VVVVVVVVVVVV

Midori could do nothing but stare at the scene in front of her with wide eyes. She didn't quite know what to make of it, but a part of her definitely knew that it amused her. How could it not? It was a three way standoff between Captain Jack Sparrow, the former Commodore James Norrington, and Davy Jones escapee William Turner. The prize: the chest with the heart of Davy Jones and the power that having it meant.

Riku, for his part, seemed equally as interested, while Donald and Goofy just seemed confused. Mickey was watching with a bit of amusement in his knowing eyes, as if he knew what the outcome would be.

That fact about Mickey unnerved Midori; he always seemed to know how things were going to play out before they actually happened. It was like someone had given him a basic outline of everything ahead of time, so while he didn't know all the details, he knew the eventual outcome.

It made her wonder if he knew her secret. She desperately hoped her didn't, because it would only add to his distrust. Midori knew for a fact that the mouse king didn't actually trust her all that much, but he was a little more open with her than when they first met. He was friendly to her, that much was true, and he didn't go out of his way to make her feel like she was under constant observation, but she knew that she was.

She couldn't know just how much manipulation and pain that still echoed in Mickey's mind from the past. He had seen too much, went through too much lost to simply trust others. He always made a good show of trusting others and being honest with them, but it took a lot of work to actually have the king completely comfortable around a person.

His friends from Disney had always been there, but they were the only ones that he had trusted without a doubt. When Sora appeared on the scene, Keyblade in hand, Mickey had observed him from afar. He watched the boy, looking for any motives that might arise to indicate his turn towards more evil tendencies. It never came. Sora reminded Mickey so much of one of his friends from the past that he couldn't help but trust the boy. Then again, it wasn't surprising that Sora reminded Mickey so much of _him_.

After seeing his loyalty to his friends, his determination to help Riku, and his pure adoration of Kairi, Mickey knew that it would take only the most cataclysmic event to force Sora onto the side of evil. Even then, as long as Kairi was there, they would always have a way to bring him back.

Riku was another story all together. Most would have thought that Mickey would have disliked Riku just because of the darkness that was at his command, but it wasn't so. Most people assumed that Mickey hated the darkness and was fighting against that, but this wasn't all that accurate. There needed to be darkness for there to be light, there was no exception to this. What Mickey fought against was evil, not darkness. An evil being could easily be from the realm of light and use it's powers. It just wasn't as common. Mickey saw as Riku fell to the darkness and did some evil things, but it never last long enough. He knew what he had done was wrong, but instead of going back to the light he chose to walk the road in between.

He broke out of his thoughts as the three men started fighting with each other, Will telling Elizabeth to watch the chest. The woman growled with anger and disbelief, running after them.

"Think we should help?" Goofy asked.

"No," Riku said with a shrug. "Just let them fight it out. None of them will kill each other."

"Is that faith I hear, Silver?" Midori teased.

He snorted and said, "No. Jack's just predictable. He won't get rid of anyone that might be of value to him in the future. Will won't actually kill either of them, he's too soft, and Norrington...well I just think that they'd both beat the hell out of him."

"Okay, so let me get this straight," Donald said suddenly. "Jack wants the heart because Davy Jones is hunting him?"

"Yup, and Will wants the heart so that he can kill Davy Jones to release his father," Goofy added.

"And Norrington wants it so that he bring it back to this Beckett fella and get his old life back," Mickey finished.

"You know, the chest is right there, we could just try to use it ourselves or something," Midori suggested with a shrug.

None of them noticed that, behind them, Ragetti and Pintel had been discussing the same thing and came to a similar idea. If the chest was worth so much, why not use it themselves?

Elizabeth was sitting on the ground, having pretended to faint to try and get at least Will's attention, but nothing seemed to work. She looked around and saw Ragetti and Pintel run passed with the chest in their hands. She watched them for a moment before getting up and chasing after them.

"I'm going to go help her," Midori said slowly, watching the scene with confusion. "Two against one isn't fair." With that she took off in the direction Elizabeth had.

"That's dirty," Riku said, watching Norrington kick dirt in Will's face before chasing after Jack. He saw movement out of the corner of his eye and looked around at the water curiously. "Do you guys see this or have I finally lost it?"

Mickey, Donald and Goofy looked around in the direction that he was staring and watched with both fascination and horror as creatures started walking out of the water. All of them appeared to be part sea-creature, part man. They zeroed in on the four on the beach, heading towards them with their weapons drawn.

"Fish people?" Donald asked. "It had to be fish people."

Riku summoned his Keyblade and said, "They want the chest too I bet. We're not going to let them get it." Then he ran towards them.

VVVVVVVVVV

"Hey!" Midori yelled as she ran behind Pintel and Ragetti. "Give it back!"

They ignored her, and she was honestly surprised that they could move so fast for drunken, diseased pirates. They did get a pretty big head start though.

Elizabeth suddenly stepped out of the trees in front of them. She didn't say a word to them, but they did stop running. They glanced at each other before dropping the chest and pulling out their swords. Elizabeth reached for her own sword, but as she did she remembered that Will had taken hers. She smiled at the two nervously.

"Hello Poppet," Pintel said as he advanced towards her. Midori finally caught up, summoning Twilight as she did and stood beside Elizabeth with her weapon pointed at them.

There was a tense pause as they all stared at each other before the sound of crushing trees met their ears. All of them looked over and watched as a huge, wooden wheel rolled by with Will and Norrington dueling on the top of it. A moment later, Jack appeared, running after the wheel.

Midori opened her mouth to say something, but there were no words that she could find to describe exactly what had just happened. The two pirates looked at each other before looking back at her and Elizabeth and advancing towards them again.

A coconut beside Elizabeth's head suddenly exploded and she let out a scream of surprise. Midori looked at the coconut, seeing an axe embedded in the tree trunk, and all of them looked around.

Riku, Mickey, Donald and Goofy were running through the vegetation, fighting with what looked like fish people.

"The crew of Davy Jones!" Pintel cried out.

"Oh hell," Midori said before blocking another flying weapon with her Keyblade. She started running, as did Elizabeth and the two pirates. Her weapon clashed with any that came towards her, and given that they were grossly outnumbered, there were a lot of weapons.

"Sword!" Elizabeth called out. Either Pintel or Ragetti threw a sword to her just in time for her to stop a fish-person from striking her. The three of them were throwing the two swords around to whoever needed them as they ran.

"Where's the chest?" Goofy called out, noticing that it was gone.

"Back there," Midori yelled back.

Riku winced as he felt something graze him, but he didn't let that stop him. The play-fights that they had on Destiny Islands had been grossly unorthodox with few rules except the first person to 'kill' the other one. Sometimes that meant ganging up two on one with other people.

"We have to get to the beach again!" Mickey said, hitting one of the pirates hard enough that his shell head came off. "It's our only chance."

"This way!" Elizabeth yelled and they headed back towards the beach.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

Jack was already on the beach when they managed to get there. He was by the longboats, using an oar to fight one of the fish-people. Ragetti and Pintel rushed towards one of the boats and were about to push it into the water when the massive wheel came out of the jungle, crushing a few of Davy Jones' crew in the process. It rolled into the shallow water and fell onto its side. A second later, both Norrington and Will stumbled away from it, both wobbling like they had drank all of Jack's rum.

Will stumbled in front of the longboat that Pintel and Ragetti were trying to steal, and finding that they didn't have any swords, they grabbed what weapons they could find to fight against him.

When no one else was looking, Jack suddenly struck will on the head with an oar, noticing that he had been staring at something in the longboat oddly.

Elizabeth hadn't seen Jack hit Will. She rushed to his side, calling out his name, and was about to shake him but Jack said, "Leave him lie! Unless you plan on using him to hit something with."

"We're not getting out of this," Midori said, holding her Keyblade out defensively as she looked at the mutant pirates.

"Not with the chest," Riku agreed.

Norrington suddenly grabbed the chest and said, "Don't wait for me." Then he took off running into the forest.

"I say we respect his final wish," Jack said quickly. "Into the boats lads."

They managed to get both of the longboats into the water since Davy Jones' crew took off after Norrington.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

Will groaned as he finally returned to consciousness. He held his aching head, and Elizabeth knelt by his side, resting a hand on his shoulder. He looked around with confusion, seeing that they were back on the Black Pearl. He looked at Riku, Midori, Donald, Mickey and Goofy before look back at Elizabeth and asked, "What happened to the chest?"

"Norrington took it to draw them off," she explained.

They looked around and watched the rest of the crew worked steadily to make sure that the Pearl was moving as quickly as possible. Midori looked over the side of the boat at the water and said, "Did I ever tell you that I'm not a huge fan of the ocean?"

"You mentioned it," Riku replied. "Why?"

"Because there are a lot of unexplainable things under it. Like a creepy boat sailing under the water."

"A creepy—" Riku was cut off as the boat Midori was talking about suddenly surfaced beside the Black Pearl, the spray of the water hitting them.

Jack didn't seem worried about this at all. He just grinned and said, "Excuse me, I'll be handling this in the proper way." He pushed passed Riku and Midori, who went back beside Mickey, Donald and Goofy and watched on. "Fishface! Loose something?" He was walking while he spoke and ended up stumbling down the stairs onto the lower portion of the deck. He shot up again, and practically strutted across the deck with his jar of dirt.

"Come to negotiate eh? Have you? You're a real slimy git you know. Look what I've got!" Jack held his jar up so that they could see it as he climbed back up the stairs that he had fallen down. "I've got a jar of dirt! I've got a jar of dirt! And guess what's inside it?"

"Enough of you, you idiot!" a pirate with a face that had squid or octopus tentacles on it for a beard yelled.

"That must be Davy Jones!" Goofy exclaimed.

"He doesn't seem too happy," Donald added as they watched the cannons appear on the Flying Dutchman.

"Oh hell," Riku said. Others were yelling out instructions to get away, but even as they sailed, the enemy ship hit them with its cannons.

"This is—" Midori stopped talking, staring with surprise at the remains of the cannon ball. It was stone. She looked back at the other ship, and there, waving happily on the deck was blue-haired Jorix. "That bastard."

"Stone, right?" Mickey asked. "How many problems can he cause us?"

"A lot," she replied. "I'm betting anything that he finds this whole thing amusing. He's always been a pervert and I'm willing to say that if he got evaluated he would be clinically insane."

The cannons continued to hit the Pearl in some spots and miss it in others. It was Donald, who had been a sailor, who noticed something odd at first. "It's falling behind."

"We've got her!" Gibbs yelled above everyone else.

"We're the faster?" Will asked.

"Against the wind the Dutchman beats up. That's how she always catches ships. With the wind though, that's another story."

"So we rob her advantage," Will concluded. They watched as the ship seemed to get farther and farther behind.

"Why do I have a feeling that they're not giving up?" Midori asked warily.

"Cause Midi, they're not."

They all whipped around and saw that Jorix was sitting high up on one of the sails. He waved at her and said, "Long time no see. Thought I'd come and say goodbye though before you become fish food. Don't worry; I won't let your other little friends know. I saw them just a little while ago. In Pride Land. How I wish that the girl had been human. I've seen pictures. She's fucking hot as hell. All the things I would love to do to her—"

"Shut up," Riku snarled, knowing fully well that he was referring to Kairi.

"Wow, snappy. You know she's with Keyboy, right? Not gonna bother with you. Now, you have fun with the fish, and I'm going to go successfully look for your missing friends. Might kill Keyboy, but her, I think I'll keep her. Think of her as my winnings." He waved at them before vanishing.

"That bastard," Riku growled. "He had better not touch Kairi. He had better not go near either of them."

"Sora can take him," Mickey said.

"And he won't let anything happen to Kairi," Donald pointed out.

"What did he mean by us being fish food?" Goofy asked slowly.

"No need to worry lads. I don't know who the funny lad was, but I do know this: why fight when you can negotiate? All one needs...is the proper leverage." As the last word left his mother, the Black Pearl was suddenly jerked roughly. Jack stumbled, and his jar of dirt fell, shattering on the deck below.

Jack shot down the stairs and started sifting through the dirt, muttering, "Where is it? Where's the thump-thump?"

"Did we hit a reef?" Donald asked.

"More likely stone if Jorix was here," Midori replied.

"No. It's not a reef or stone," Will said slowly, his eyes widening in realization. "Get away from the rail!"

"What? What is it?" Elizabeth asked him.

"The Kraken," Will said. His voice was soft, but still, everyone heard it. They all began rushing around quickly, getting their guns, cannons and any other weapons that they had.

"I've seen this before," Will said to Gibbs, who was barking out orders. "It'll attack starboard. Wait for my signal to attack."

"You heard the lad," Gibbs yelled to everyone else.

There was a sudden pause as massive tentacles slowly started to crawl up the hull of the ship.

"Oh my god," Midori whispered, taking a step back and grabbing Riku's arm with wide eyes. "This is the reason I don't like the ocean."

"Steady!" Will called out to everyone as the tentacles started reaching around the ship. "Hold it..."

"Will!" Elizabeth screamed at him. He yelled for them to fire, and the cannons from below the ship fired at the tentacles, which slid back into the ocean.

"It's not over, is it?" Riku asked.

"No," Will agreed. "We need to get off of the ship."

"There's no boats," Mickey pointed out.

Will groaned in frustration before looking around, his eyes landing on the barrels of gunpowder that were left on the ship. He grinned a bit and said, "Get all the powder into the net in the cargo hold!" He pressed a gun into Elizabeth's arms and said something to her before rushing to help put the gunpowder into the large net.

"We don't have enough powder," Gibbs called out to Will.

"Then load the rum!" he replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Everyone halted for a second before Gibbs agreed and they all got back to work.

"Where's Jack?" Riku asked, helping move some of the large barrels.

Elizabeth looked around and suddenly rushed to the railing. She let out an angry growl and said, "Oh you coward!" Jack Sparrow was rowing away from the ship on the only surviving boat.

Whatever Will's plan was, it wasn't fast enough. The tentacles of the Kraken crept back onto the ship. One grabbed at a crewmember, dragging him into the ocean.

"Well," Riku said, summoning his Keyblade. "This we can help with." They hacked at anything that came towards them, but every time they cut one away, another seemed to take its place.

"Shoot!" Will yelled at Elizabeth from on the net with the gunpowder. He had been trying to attract the Kraken's attention again, slicing at the tentacles and yelling at it.

Elizabeth hesitated, wanting will to get out of the net before she shot it. She didn't get the chance though. One of the tentacles grabbed her leg and started dragging her backwards.

Midori heard her scream and rushed at her, slicing through the tentacle with her Keyblade. She helped Elizabeth up, and screamed as another tentacle came at her. She managed to slice it away, and Elizabeth headed towards the gun, only to find it was gone. She looked around for it wildly, and saw, much to her amazement, that Jack Sparrow had returned. He didn't hesitate in shooting the gunpowder.

The explosion that followed was bigger than Riku expected. He hit the floor along with his friends and everyone else on the ship. The tentacles all retreated, many of them on fire. A second later, a horrifying groaning sound was heard.

"We made it angry," Gibbs said. He looked around at Jack and asked, "Captain, orders?"

"Abandon ship. Into the remaining longboat."

"What about the Pearl?" Gibbs seemed utterly stumped that Jack would tell them to abandon his precious ship.

"She's only a ship, mate," he said, but anyone could see that he wasn't honest about that.

"We have to head back for land," Mickey called out.

"That's a lot of open water though," Donald said warily.

"We have to try," Riku argued. "What do we gain from staying here? Nothing!"

"He's right," Will said with a nod. "We can get away as it takes down the Pearl."

It was a collective agreement to abandon the Pearl. They packed up supplies and guns as fast as they could, still leaving enough room for everyone to get in.

Elizabeth looked back at Jack before glancing around at Midori and saying, "It's not after the ship."

"It's after him," Midori concluded. She sighed and said, "Do what you have to."

Elizabeth nodded and said, "Get in the boat."

Riku helped Midori into the boat and she sat between him and Mickey. She knew what Elizabeth had to do, but it still didn't stop her from feeling horrible able it. Then again, Jack was always using everyone to his advantage. This time, it was their turn.

"Where's Jack?" Will asked Elizabeth a little colder than normal.

"He elected to stay behind to give us a chance," she explained. At the uncertain looks of the crew she demanded that they start rowing.

"What do we do once we get to shore?" Donald asked.

"Leave," Riku answered. "There were no enemies here for us to fight. There's nothing else we can do."

"Jorix was probably just encouraging Jones, making the problem worse," Midori added. "Like I said, he's insane."

"Sora's not going to be happy about this," Goofy said. "He always did like Jack."

They sat in silence, watching the Kraken destroy the ship and the lone person staying behind.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

Jack managed to get the shackle that Elizabeth had put on his hand off. He had to admit, he felt almost proud of her for being so...pirate-y. She saw a means to an end, and she took it.

He looked around as the Kraken rose up out of the water. He stared at it for a moment before it roared at him, spraying him with slime.

"Not so bad," he said optimistically. He looked around and noticed his old hat lying on the floor next to his feet. He picked it up, and put it back on after wiping the slime from his face. He grinned at the Kraken. He was not going to go down without a fight. He drew his sword, and there was a sudden flash of light. He looked down and saw that his sword had changed. Instead there was a completely different weapon in his hands. He recognized it though. His grin reappeared as he realized that it was a Keyblade.

"Hello beastie," he said confidently and charged towards the creature's teeth-filled mouth.

**Author's Note**

I figured that because it took me nearly two weeks to update last time, I should update a little bit sooner. Next week I'm going to be busy busy, so I'm not sure when I'll update. If it's a long one, expect another chapter a few days after the next one. I'll probably start updating quicker, because once BBS comes out I imagine I'll get much more inspiration when writing Shadows of Sleep. Yes, I'm having a hard time with a rewrite. It's just sooooo different from the original that it could stand as it's own story. Rest assured, there's a lot the same as well. Different things to keep in mind is that in mine, Aqua was more like Kairi or Namine, more bubbly less independent. That's going to completely change so that would make everything around her change. As well, there's going to be NO couples at all. None. Well, unless you count baby Sora and Kairi fluff. As well, Vanitas is going to be worked in. Why? Because Vanitas is badass. Plus Eqarus will be worked in.

Those are just a few of the changes. But you can see how those alone would change almost everything.

Thank you to Oblivion's Right Hand and KaUiA for reviewing, and thank you to everyone who read this.

**_Krystal Lily Potter_**


	27. This Is Halloween

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Twenty-Six – This Is Halloween_

The first time Sora and Kairi had been unfortunate enough to stumble across really cold weather together, it was in a world where snow wasn't the natural climate. As such, their clothes didn't alter with the magic from the world and they were stuck with their very summery clothing. This world was a little bit different though. It was cold all year round, but in a way that was completely different from anything Kairi had ever seen before.

She felt a small shiver go up her spine, but it wasn't from the temperature. No, this shiver was from the wave of fright that passed over her. She had always been a superstitious person since she was little. She had a feeling that it stemmed from how she would hear adults always say that she was destined to be on the islands, or that she was destined to be friends with Sora and Riku. On top of that, her adopted parents took the religious beliefs of Destiny Islands very seriously, so it only made sense that she would be a bit superstitious herself. Not to the extreme Riku's father did, but more so than Sora's mother, who never seemed to really care. As such, Kairi didn't know what to think about the black cat that walked in front of her, or the ladder that she had been forced to walk under, and that had only been in the first minute that she was in the dark world.

She eyed the houses in the distance, taking in their dark and twisted appearances. There were tombstones everywhere, dead, twisted trees, sharp metal gates and fence, and a lot of rather frightening jack-o-lanterns. She felt like she stepped into Halloween itself.

She heard Sora chuckle and knew that he knew where they were. Turning on her heel, she went to ask him where they were, but instead she let out a small scream of surprise and tripped over an exposed tree root. She would have falling to the ground in all of her frightened glory if Sora wouldn't have grabbed her arm and pulled her back towards him.

Kairi couldn't help but stare at him. His clothes were all dark and ripped in a few places, and there were small bat-like wings sticking out of the top of the back of the shirt. His skin was paler than normal, except for right around his eyes, which were a deep charcoal colour that blended with the white. This caused his cerulean eyes to stand out so much that it was almost eerie, even though she could only see one as the other was hidden by his hair, which was pushed down from the crown on his head. The thing that truly startled her were his teeth. The canine teeth were long and sharp, causing her to shiver in fear.

"You're a vampire," she muttered warily. She had been forced to watch one too many horror movies involving vampires when she was younger. She liked happy mediums in things, but the only vampire movies that she had ever been exposed to were those with vicious monsters or those with plot lines that involved a Mary-Sue who had to choose between bestiality or necrophilia. Needless to say, she didn't enjoy vampires.

He grinned mischievously, and she couldn't help but find that it looked a little more dangerous than normal, but she was sure that she was the only one who would have been able to pick it out. Not in a he's-gonna-go-psycho-and-kill-me-way but more of an I'm-a-teenage-boy-with-my-girlfriend-and-my-parents-aren't-home sort of way. She was automatically wary.

"I like this world," Sora said happily. "We're in Halloween Town. The people are a bit creepy looking, but they're really nice, they just like to scare people constantly, and you get to dress up all of the time. I gotta say, I definitely, _definitely _approve of your costume. Well, as long as I'm with you, of course."

Kairi was confused and looked down at herself, stunned that she had never noticed how she had changed as well. It seemed that the magic of the world had deemed it necessary to give her a _very _short, blood red dress that was also a halter top that cut down low in the front. There was a black cloak thrown over her shoulders, clasped with a spider shaped pendant that had a vibrant red ruby in the center, which she found attracted more attention to her chest. If that wasn't enough, she was wearing a pair of knee-high boots with heels and laces going all the way up them, and a pair of fish-nets. She could vaguely feel a hat on her head, covering one of her eyes like Sora's hair covered his. She didn't know it, but her skin was coloured like his was now.

Kairi gave him a horrified look and said, "I look like a slut!"

Sora chuckled and said, "You're not a slut baby."

"Sora," she said with a harsh tone, "I am wearing fish-nets with hooker-boots and a dress that barely covers my chest or my ass. Yes, I look like a slut. What kind of world is this? Your costume isn't that bad and—" she stopped mid-sentence and stared at him as he grabbed her by her hips and pulled her towards him. She eyed his teeth as they caught her eye and asked, "Are those real?"

He rolled his eyes at how she went from ranting to asking questions that fast. "Of course they are. I turn into a vampire, Donald changes into a mummy, Goofy changes into a Frankenstein-like monster, and you turn into a hot witch."

She glowered at him as she tried to push away from him, but he held her close, his eyes straying away from her face. She blushed vibrantly as he pulled her closer still until it was impossible to fit a piece of paper between the two of them. She shivered a bit as his rested his forehead on her shoulder, breathing in deeply. She did not like his teeth by her neck.

"You really like this costume, don't you?" Kairi asked him. She wasn't quite sure whether to be pleased that he liked her costume and didn't see all that much wrong with it, or disappointed that her boyfriend seemed so easily subdued by some cleavage and a short skirt.

"Hmmm," he muttered before pulling his head away from her neck. His eyes slid up and down her frame before saying, "Only on you, but clothes like this every day...that would be slutty. Every once and a while though..."

Kairi smiled warmly at his words. As long as he only reacted like this to her, then she wasn't bothered by it all that much. Besides, this knowledge would make it so much easier if he was being stubborn in the future. She smirked suddenly and asked, "So, once this is over and we get home, I should definitely buy a dress like this for every once and a while when we're alone?"

Sora rested her forehead against her shoulder again and said, "I don't know if that's a good idea."

She frowned at this and asked, "Why? I thought you liked it."

"I like it a little too much," he mumbled. "You have no idea what I'd love to do to you right about now. It's even making Roxas blush."

Kairi's face, although flushed before, seemed to grow steadily redder at his words. She wasn't exactly sure how to reply to that, instead choosing to stutter out a bunch of syllables that didn't really sound like anything. She could feel a bit of shock coursing through her, mingling with the nervousness that it wasn't surprising she possessed at the moment, but at the same time she felt very...smug about the entire thing. Call her vain, but Kairi knew that she was fairly good looking, and while she was glad Sora liked her for who she was, in a way, she enjoyed his reaction to her as well. It was proof that he loved everything about her, even if neither of them had said the 'l word' yet.

"Don't worry," Sora said with a laugh as he looked her in the eyes again, amusement spreading over his features, "I know you don't want to yet. I'm okay with that. You've just gotta accept that I'm going to think about it when you wear things like that...or just when my mind wanders. Come on, we should go and find someone to see if anything's going on here."

His hands fell from her waist, and she automatically missed the warmth of his body as he moved away. She bit her lip as she looked at him while he started to walk away. She stood stationary for a moment before quickly taking a few steps forward and grabbing his arm. Sora turned to face her, but before he could ask her what was wrong, she grabbed him by his collar, yanking his face down to hers as she kissed him roughly. The force of her yanking Sora caused them to stumble back into the crumbling, stone wall behind them, but neither of them noticed. Sora mind had been blind-sided and effectively shut down on contact, but there was a bit of shock and confusion running through his mind. Or maybe that was Roxas, he couldn't tell at the moment.

Kairi let out a small grunt as his hands trailed down her back under her black cloak, resting on her rear and pulling her towards him. She wasn't exactly sure what she was doing at the moment, but it was definitely passed the PG rating. She was pretty sure that she had initiated the French kiss, but she couldn't actually remember. Part coherent of her mind (also known as Naminé) pointed out that if someone walked by, the sounds that they were making alone would attract attention, but she could honestly care less. She felt like she was on fire, the burning originating from anywhere his fingers even brushed against. Her lungs were burning for air, but she had been ignoring it as she kissed her boyfriend. It was only when the burning became far too much that Kairi had to pull away, breathing heavily.

Sora looked down at her for a moment before moving his face to her neck and kissing her. Kairi giggled as she felt his fangs briefly touch her skin before she tugged up his head and gave him a deep, but quick kiss. It wasn't the first time that they had kissed each other so roughly or with so much need, they had made out before, but something felt different thing time.

"What's happening?" Sora muttered in a dazed way, and Kairi had to pause to think about it. They were in a very secluded area, making out, and she was in a small dress that had hiked up quite a bit due to her boyfriend's wandering hands. She knew what it would have looked like to anyone who might wander by, and even though all of that seemed to lead to one conclusion, Sora was right, she wasn't ready to have sex yet, especially not in a strange world in a back alley with her boyfriend as a vampire. She had no doubt that if he really got carried away that those fangs would hurt.

Naminé personally thought she was stupid because her biggest issue was that the fangs would hurt. No, not that they were in a place where anyone could stumble across them, or just the sheer fact that she wasn't quite ready yet, or even that they didn't have any sort of protection and the timing would have made it so that she was almost guaranteed to get pregnant. Her problem was that the fangs would hurt! Naminé was going to have to give her a serious talk about her priorities. Call the blonde a prude (even though her Other clearly wasn't), but as long as she and Kairi shared a body, there would not be any intercourse.

Still, despite Naminé's ranting in her head and her knowledge that she really wasn't ready yet, she couldn't help but wonder where she was going with this and why she had started it. She bit her lip and looked up at him with an unsure look, her eyes meeting his dazed ones. He didn't move his hands, nor had he moved away, but he also wasn't pushing her anymore. A thrill of affection passed through Kairi when she realized that, no matter how much he wanted to push her, he would never force her passed her comfort zones. She thought about this and made up her mind (which also meant telling Naminé to calm down), wrapping her arms around his neck.

"You're right," she said while staring up at him, "I'm not ready for that yet." An amused smirk passed her features when Sora hugged her close; she could tell just how turned on he actually was. "You know," she continued, "just because I'm not ready to actually sleep with you doesn't mean that we can't do other things."

Sora raised an eyebrow, a curious look passing through his eyes as he asked, "Like what?"

Kairi just smirked a bit and pulled him close for another kiss.

**VVVVVVVV**

"Is that a guillotine?" Kairi asked, her indigo eyes widening with shock as she stared at the sharp object. She was about to take a step towards it, but Sora pulled her back.

"Be careful, a lot of this place is booby-trapped. That could easily fall. Oh, and don't go near that fountain in the center of the square," he motioned to the stone fountain that was filled with a glowing, vibrant green liquid, "it might shoot whatever that is at you. I think it might be acid."

"What kind of world is this?" Kairi asked as she fixed her cloak around herself. She had discovered that the cloak was fairly big, almost touching the ground and still able to cover her entire body. As she walked, it only parted a bit so anyone looking would only be able to see her boots and a bit of her leg. She wasn't going to complain about that though, because at least she could cover the rest of her up without anyone else ogling her like Sora had done earlier. Considering he had said most people were actually the undead here, that would have been creepy.

Sora placed his hand on her waist as he guided her away from Halloween Town Square. She couldn't help but stare oddly at the creatures that they passed. None of them even seemed to notice anything out of the ordinary about the couple that walked passed them, not knowing that they were from a completely different world.

"This world is pretty much the general essence of Halloween," Sora explained. "I know every world has different traditions and everything, but for those that celebrate Halloween, this is pretty much it at its purest these days. Our world takes it a bit too seriously, so aside from trick-or-treating, we lose most of the fun behind it with all of the fear and paranoia."

"Yeah but—is that a walking bathtub?" She stopped, her eyes wide as she pointed at the white bathtub that was indeed walking away from them with three small children in it

Sora wrapped his arms around her shoulders and said, "Yup. The three in it, Lock, Shock and Barrel, are troublemakers, so I'd stay away from them. Some of their pranks are harmless, but others can really hurt people. Most people know what lines not to cross here, but they don't seem to care all that much. Oogie was worse though."

She shivered a bit at the thought of a living sack of bugs. She was glad that Sora had taken care of him already. That was when she noticed something completely out of place in such a dark world: there were bright orange lights strewn all over a house with what looked like dead wreaths and torn bows. On top of that, there were several skeleton reindeer in the yard.

"That's Jack's house!" Sora cried out happily as he once again moved his arm to her waist to pull her with him. She stumbled a bit as they rushed up the old, steep stairs, and Sora pushed the doorbell. Instead of a normal ring, it let out a terrified scream. Kairi jumped, and would have fell down the stairs if her boyfriend didn't have such a tight grip on her. A second later, the door flew open and a tall skeleton jumped out yelling. Sora laughed as Kairi screamed and hid her face against his shoulder, somehow keeping them balanced on the stairs even though he too had jumped.

"Success!" Jack Skellington yelled happily as he flourished his hands in the air. Much to Kairi's surprise he seemed almost adorable, in a skeletal, undead sort of way when he wasn't trying to be downright terrifying. "Come in, come in." The redhead was a little wary, but her boyfriend dragged her in behind him.

"Kairi, I'd like to you meet my friend Jack," he said with a grin. "Jack, this is my girlfriend Kairi."

"So you're Kairi. I've heard a lot about you from Sora," the skeleton said while taking her and and kissing it politely. It was odd, but she was still flattered as his gentlemanly attitude.

"Sora's told me so much about all of his friends that they seem to blend together a bit," Kairi admitted sheepishly. "So you must be Jack...Sparrow?"

"Close," the skeleton said happily. "I am the master of night, the king of terror, the pumpkin king, Jack Skellington!" He finished his introduction with a pose, causing her to laugh.

"I do know a Jack Sparrow," Sora admitted, "but he's from somewhere else."

"So what brings you here?" Jack asked them curiously. "Is there more trouble?"

"Yeah, but it doesn't seem like anything is wrong here," Sora replied. "We should probably stick around for a few days though, just in case. Sometimes the trouble doesn't start up until a few days later."

"Or until after we're gone," Kairi muttered under her breath. That much was true. They had ended up in Neverland twice. The first time everything seemed perfect, but when they accidentally returned there all of the children were missing with only the fairies, mermaids, adult natives and pirates left.

"Hmmm, well nothing has been out of the ordinary lately," Jack said thoughtfully. He paused for a moment, his finger to his face in thought before he suddenly jumped and said, "Right! I need to go to Dr. Finklestein's house. You two look tired, so you can stay here for now. Just watch out for the closet in the basement. There's a Boogeyman in there. He's here in training, so he tries to scare as many people as possible. Sally should be back soon." With that, Jack bid them farewell and left the house.

"Are we really going to stay here?" Kairi asked, staring around the dark house skeptically.

"Of course we are," Sora replied with excitement. Kairi was about to protest, but Sora sealed his lips over hers quickly. She let out a muffled sound of surprise before kissing him back. He broke away quickly, grinned broadly as he suddenly picked her up and spun around in a circle.

Kairi laughed happily and giggled as he set her down again, feeling slightly dizzy. She poked him in the stomach and said, "Affectionate much? You do know that we're not doing what we did earlier again, right?"

He nodded his head and grinned slyly, showing off his fangs. He hugged her tightly and said, "Well, like you said, there are other things we can do."

She laughed again before saying, "Not today. You Mister are not going to become a..." she paused to think, unsure of which word to use. "A horndog."

Sora burst into laughter at her choice of words, settling for just hugging her. After a few moments of him trying to calm himself, only to bubble up with laughter again, he managed to calm himself enough to say, "You know, it's good seeing Jack again. I like seeing all of my friends outside of dreams."

"Dreams?" Kairi asked curiously. "You mean the ones that seem a little more intense than normal dreams, but not nightmares? You've been having those a lot lately."

He seemed stunned by this and asked, "How do you know that?"

"I sleep with you every night, Sora," she replied dryly. "You always start moving around and muttering things. I try to wake you up when it seems too bad, but you never do. It—it frightens me sometimes, to be honest."

He felt horrible at this revelation. He never wanted her to worry or be scared because of him, even though he knew it was impossible.

"I'm sorry," he said, "but you don't have to worry. They're not weird dreams, they're just...different. I see people, a lot of them I know, but some of them I don't. I've seen Jack Sparrow, Aladdin, Hercules, Ariel, Tiana, Mulan, Peter Pan, Sitich, and the Jack we just saw. Sometimes I the Princesses of Heart, and other times there are people I don't recognize. There's this really tall guy with brown hair, a woman with blue hair, a girl with black hair and-"

"And?" she encouraged him. Kairi had been hoping that he would open up about his dreams on his own. That was why she hadn't bothered him about them before.

"There's this boy," Sora said slowly, "he's identical to Roxas, but he's not him. I don't know, I get the feeling that I know him, and not because he looks like Roxas. He always looks so sad about something. I just wish I knew..." He trailed off, not sure what he wanted to say.

_'I could try looking through his memories,' _Naminé suggested to Kairi, who repeated the idea to Sora.

He shook his head and said, "No, that's okay. Roxas and I will sort through this on our own. I just get the feeling that we're supposed to."

Kairi nodded her head reluctantly and hugged him tightly. He looked down at her bright red hair, and saw the glow from the orange lights on it, spurring another memory. "The girl with black hair, she has a Keyblade. I think it's called Twilight or something like that."

She frowned at this and quickly jerked away from him so suddenly that it left him startled. She crossed her arms in front of her chest, giving him a good shot of her cleavage as she said, "Why the extra detail about her, huh? Is she pretty?"

"Huh?" He was stunned at the jealousy, not quite sure where it was coming from.

"If you think that just because you've seen that I'm willing to put out some that if you start looking at someone else that I'll go all the way, you're sorely mistaken. You can just go to that other girl and—no, no that's a lie." She suddenly looked very distraught. "You're right, the threat of loosing you probably would make me willing to do things I'm not really ready to do. I just-"

"Kairi!" he said loudly, causing her to pause mid sentence. "You silly girl. Where do you get these ideas? I told you earlier that I'm fine with not going farther. I didn't mean anything behind mentioning her; it just popped into my head. I would never try to go to another girl."

Truthfully, Sora was having an internal battle with himself. There was no doubt that the thought of being with his girlfriend intimately was on his mind, especially because of what had occurred earlier, but at the same time, his dream from so long ago also flashed before him. He saw her kneeling before the knight, heavily pregnant, and about to be killed. He didn't want that future to occur at all. Well, the part with her dying that is, and the pregnant part he just wanted to push farther into the future. Much farther.

She flushed with embarrassment and hid her face in his shoulder, ashamed of herself. She just couldn't help it from time to time. She was so godforsaken head over heels with this boy that she'd probably go insane without him now. It was kind of pathetic really, she realized. Kairi had always insisted that she was independent and could take care of herself, but she was starting to see just how much that wasn't true. She relied on Sora so much that it would have probably made a feminist cringe. She was snapped out of her thoughts as she felt Sora playfully, and carefully, kiss her neck before nipping at it very gently.

She giggled and tried to push him away, but his grip was too strong. "Get out of there. I don't want you biting me."

"But I'm a vampire," he said with a very bad impression of Dracula, "and I want to suck your blood."

She laughed as he moved close to her neck again, and shoved his face gently away from her. She poked his nose and said, "Well I am a witch. I'm sure I could turn you into a spotted toad or something. Wait, never mind, we were already frogs. Umm...I'd turn you pocket sized to keep with me at all times, only make you bigger when I want to."

"And when would you want me to be bigger, Miss Kairi?"

She gave his impish smirk a flat stare before saying, "I hate you." She felt his grip loosen slightly as she back away from him, crossing her arms in front of her and giving him a rather pouty glare before turning away from him.

Sora laughed at her, knowing that she didn't mean it. He wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and nuzzled his face into her neck. She giggled a bit and petting his spiky hair.

Another giggle caught Kairi's attention. She turned only slightly and saw what looked like a life sized rag doll staring at them with a smile. She gasped in surprise, feeling her embarrassment rising up with her reddening cheeks. She smacked Sora's arm, causing him to yank it back and look up.

His cheeks turned a pale shade of pink ad he said, "Oh, um, hi Sally."

"Hello Sora," Sally said with a smile, "and you must be Kairi."

She nodded her head and stepped a little bit farther from Sora. They were alone so often that it embarrassed her so much when they were caught being more affectionate than normal. She was used to being affectionate with him, just not around other people.

"Jack just sent me to get you," Sally informed them. She caught the way they both seemed alarmed and more alert, and held up a hand with a reassuring smile. "No, there's nothing wrong. He said that he needed to discuss something with Sandy Claws, and since you seemed a bit uncomfortable here, Kairi, maybe you two would like to go to Christmas Town instead."

Kairi was sure that she was going to die from embarrassment in this world. She hadn't wanted any of Sora's friends to know how uncomfortable she was around them. She actually wouldn't have been surprised to find out that there was a camera filming her and Sora earlier with the way this world seemed to like her. Luckily, no such camera existed.

"Who is Sandy Claws?" Kairi asked her in a rather shy voice.

"Who do you think?" Sora said with a grin while. "Sandy Claws, living in Christmas Town? Come on Iri, you can get this."

Her brow scrunched up in thought for a moment until her eyebrows suddenly shot up, her indigo eyes widening with shock. "No way."

Sora grinned as her, looping his arm through hers as he led her out of the door with Sally in the lead, "Yes way. We're going to see Santa."

**VVVVVVVV**

Sally had gone ahead of them to the workshop when they got to Christmas Town, but Sora had decided to hang back, keeping Kairi with him. She was pleasantly surprised with how warm her long cloak was because the cold of the place didn't both her at all. This was the vision she had in her head when she had wanted to see snow, not the vicious blizzard in Deep Jungle.

Sora let out a happy laugh as he purposely rolled down a small hill, flopping into a pile of snow. The cold wasn't a factor with him either this time and he was taking advantage of that. His grin was contagious, and soon Kairi found herself laughing on the ground beside him, carefully making sure that her cloak stayed around her.

"Really, all of these Holiday Town worlds are connected, so it's like a bunch of tiny worlds in one big one. Halloween Town is awesome, but I love this one the most." Sora helped her to her feet and led her towards the edge of the large hill that they were on. He smiled warmly at her before motioning with one arm and saying, "Welcome to Christmas Town."

Kairi couldn't help but gape in awe at the small down in front of her. From their spot high on Yuletide Hill, the town looked like a perfect little world of snow, lights and decorations. She knew that it wasn't Christmas time yet, but she suddenly wished it was. She let Sora start yanking her down the hill, wanting to go to the cozy looking town herself.

Sora grinned widely as he realized that the place hadn't been attacked by their enemies. Seeing that some worlds were being spared for no other reason than luck made him both happy and sad at the same time. He wished that they could just pinpoint this enemy and take them down.

"This place is..." Kairi trailed off, unsure of how to describe it. She held out a hand as a light snow started to fall, an amazed look on her face. Sora smiled at the sight of her amazed face as she studied the different shapes of the snowflake crystals. He chuckled at her and put his arms behind his head, slowly walking towards Santa's Workshop. Still, he kept all of his senses on the girl, just in case something happened.

Kairi seemed to have come to the realization that she was being left behind quickly. She sprinted after Sora, but ended up slipping with a small scream on the snow and sliding down the slight incline that they were on. Sora turned to see what had made her scream, only to be plowed over. Kairi hit his legs, causing him to fall on top of her before rolling the rest of the way. Their laughter echoed through the snowy hills as they got closer to the small gingerbread-like houses.

In a flutter of snow, Sora landed on his back with Kairi on top of him, both still laughing hysterically by this point of time. They both stopped and just stared at one another, not at all worrying about the other feeling awkward about the stares.

After a moment, Sora nudged her lightly and she got off of him, laughing as he shook his head and snow flew out of his spikes. She couldn't help but feel giddy as she frolicked in the snow with him. She knew that few guys would really do something like this, especially when their friends were around. Sora was unique in that way, because he was more apt to act like that around his friends, but Riku, for instance, would have just stood to the side and watched her weirdly.

Sora took her hand in his and led her into the town. He wondered idly if Jack was trying to take over Christmas again, but he doubted it. It wasn't nearly as busy as last time he had been there, but in all fairness, it had been closer to Christmas then.

As they walked, Kairi was struck with a sudden realization: they were going to see Santa Claus. Ever since Riku had made fun of her and Sora for still believing in him when they were about eight, neither had mentioned believing in him again. Now she knew that he existed all along. Her eyes glanced at Sora quickly before turning to the rest of the scenery and Naminé asked, _'Is it such a surprise that he believes without a doubt?'_

'Well, he was here before,' Kairi pointed out.

_'Yes, but Sora also believed that he was real only a few seconds after someone mentioned going to see Santa.'_

Kairi just giggled lightly, causing Sora to glance over at her and squeeze her hand tighter.

They entered a small house that seemed to be connected to a large factory behind it. It was a warm, quaint home that made Kairi feel automatically welcomed. She squeezed Sora's hand again as they walked into the living room, and her eyes widened. There, standing only a few feet away from her, was a jolly old man with a tummy like a bowl of jelly, a long white beard, and red clothes lined with white.

"Hoooomygod," she said in a quick whisper. "Sora1 It's really Santa!" The last part was said a little louder than she had meant to, attracting the attention of Santa, Jack and Sally (whom she just noticed was there as well).

Santa stared at them for a moment before grinning and saying, "Sora, it's good to see you again. I see you've been a—decent boy this year. A few bumps and blemishes, but nothing really big." Sora's face flushed with an embarrassed smile. The old man then turned his attention to the redhead and said, "And Kairi, it's good to finally meet you. You know, you'd be on the good list too, except for the small flaw that you did not believe in me. Seems to me that you stopped believing when Sora did. I must have a chat with Riku."

Kairi blushed too, and she couldn't help but feel a little bit peeved at their silver-haired friend.

"Santa," Sora said, suddenly serious. "Have you noticed any trouble here?"

"Not here," he said while shaking his head. He eyes glanced down sadly at the Naughty or Nice List with a frown. "There are so many missing children though. I'm beyond worried for them, because I can't find any of them. Normally I could find them, but I can't feel them at all."

Kairi looked down, automatically thinking of the worst.

"It's a group of people taking them," Sora explained. "We're nearly positive that they have been taking them for the light in their hearts. These people are vicious and have been killing people just because they can."

Santa stared at the list and said, "I believe that there isn't a single child, no matter who their parents are or how they were brought into the world, who has darkness in them at the moment of birth. In their younger years, most have none or very little amounts of darkness in their hearts with some exceptions. Most, as they get older, accumulate more darkness. There are very few hearts that can live without darkness, and there are even fewer than that who retain an imbalance of very little darkness. The seven Princesses of Heart are the ones who can live without darkness, and Sora, as far as I know, you're one of the few people living with such an imbalance of darkness and light in you."

Sora frowned at this and said, "People keep telling me that, but that can't be true. Grandmother Willow said that the connections in my heart kept me strong, but still...my Anti Form-"

"Is not actually a Heartless," Santa explained. "It's like your other forms: valor, wisdom, master and final. They don't have their own personalities, they just give you the ability to have different fighting styles. Anti Form gives you the option to fight as a Heartless, but you are not one."

"Well, I guess that's true," Sora agreed, "but I do have enough darkness in me to create a Heartless."

Santa chuckled and said, "Yes, but wasn't it a rather, forgive me for being so blunt, pathetic Heartless?"

Kairi squeezed Sora's hand and nodded, "He wasn't aggressive at all. He just kind of stood there, was smaller than most, and seemed almost frightened of the others."

Sora flushed at her description, and Jack said, "So the smaller and less aggressive a Heartless is, the less darkness there is in a person. That makes sense, wouldn't you agree Sally?"

"Yes," Sally agreed.

Kairi shifted a bit, a sad look appearing on her face. She looked up at Sora sadly and said, "Those tiny Heartless that we saw, the ones asking for help really are some of those missing children, aren't they?" Tears welded up in her eyes at the thought.

Sora hugged his now very upset girlfriend. He looked at them all and asked, "Any guesses about why this is all happening?"

"Well," Santa said slowly, "I have no idea, but I think I know who might."

"Who?" Sora, Kairi, Jack and even Sally asked eagerly.

"Maleficent."

Sora winced and Kairi looked down. Her eyes locked onto the Naughty or Nice list as she said, "I hate this, you know. I hate that we're going to have to rely on our enemies to help, and that the worlds we think are safe end up in danger later on. I wish there was a way that we could protect worlds after leaving them."

"You might not be able to," Jack admitted, "but I can."

"We know Jack, but a Keyblade Bearer would be better," Sora said to him.

Jack just grinned and held out his hand. A second later, there was a flash of light and Decisive Pumpkin appeared in his bony hand.

Both Sora and Kairi were stunned into silence. Neither of them had a clue that others could use Keyblades, they had never run across it before. Of course, they had no way to know that, between their time in Neverland flying with Peter, and when they went back a second time by accident, that he too had used a Keyblade to try and save his friends. Jack looked like he was waiting for an explanation, but they didn't have one to give.

"Well," Sora said with a strained voice, "at least we know this place will be safe." In his head, he was going through the people in his dream quickly. Maybe that's why he saw those people specifically. He hoped that Jack could take care of the world, because he remembered seeing Peter in his dreams and Neverland had still been attacked.

Santa could feel the confusion coming from the two and said, "You two seem exhausted. I'm sure you had a very busy day. You can both stay here if you like. I have an extra room, and once Mrs. Claus comes back she'll be delighted to have houseguests. You should both get some rest for now. It's the third door to the right upstairs."

Sora was going to ask how there was an upstairs in a one story house, but a second later a hallway with a set of stairs appeared in one of the blank walls. He and Kairi cast Santa a curious look, but he just chuckled and winked. Deciding that if they could trust anyone it was Santa Claus, Sora put his hand against Kairi's back and led her towards the stairs.

"Oh, and Sora?"

They both glanced back at the man curiously.

"I trust you not to do anything else that might get you on the Naughty List."

Sora felt his face burn brightly, and Kairi looked utterly horrified at the words. The words 'anything else' went through both of their minds with horror.

_'Santa totally knows what went on earlier,' _Roxas pointed out to Sora with a laugh.

'Shut up Roxas, before I come down there to deal with you.'

_'Shouldn't you be saying that to Kairi?'_

Sora blushed brighter red, from Roxas' words, the laughter coming from Santa, Jack and Sally, and from the fact that Kairi's dress was now clearly visible as her cloak opened while rushing up the stairs.

'I hate you all,' Sora said to Roxas, but it was directed at pretty much the entire universe.

Roxas just laughed.

**Author's Note**

This was actually one of my favorite chapters to write. This and the next one. I suppose, in stark contrast, the chapter that's two away is anything but funny and happy. You'll see why when we get there.

I decided to update fairly quickly again because I probably won't get the next chapter up for a little bit. Back to university I go tomorrow. Where did the summer go?

Then again, I was counting down the days. Is it weird that I'm excited to go to school?

Thank you to everyone who reviewed this and other chapters. Including Trainalf, KaUiA and Kingdommad. I really appreciate it!

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	28. What's This?

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Twenty-Seven – What's This?_

The smell of freshly baked bread was what roused Kairi from her peaceful slumber. It had been the best sleep she had in a while. She didn't really like to think of herself as a high maintenance girl, but she never really realized how much she adored being guaranteed a shower, having a soft bed to sleep in, and having more than one set of clothes to wear. Luckily, magic seemed to be on their side and their clothes rare seemed to get too dirty or smelly. She didn't want to complain about small things like though. If only because she knew that Sora wasn't really impressed with girls who focused on their looks so much. He outwardly admitted that one of his pet peeves was listening to a girl complain about her appearance, especially when there was nothing really wrong with her. Still, that didn't stop her from mentally wishing that they had a gummi ship to travel on with a shower or something.

Her stomach let out a rumble and she felt her cheeks burn a bit, realizing that Sora's hands were resting there. She heard him chuckle, and only then realized that he was awake already. He rolled her around so that they were facing each other and Sora leaned down, giving her a small kiss before saying, "Good morning."

She hummed a bit and said, "It really is, isn't it? We didn't have to fight anything yesterday, we had a comfortable bed, we probably won't have to fight anything today and-"

"We did a bit of exploring yesterday," he interrupted with a wink, a sly grin appearing on his face.

Kairi blushed and smacked him gently before muttering, "Since you're going to be like that, never again." She giggled at Sora's pout, petting his hair like he was a dog. She stopped as her stomach rumbled violently again, causing him to laugh. Sora took his arms from around her and rolled out of the bed, stretching as he stood up. He didn't bother putting on most parts of his costume again, instead sticking with just the pants and a black t-shirt that had been underneath his jacket.

Looking back at Kairi, who was still lying down lazily, now with the covers thrown off of her thanks to his movements, he grinned impishly and said, "You sure you it's never again? I'd beg to differ from the way you're just laying there dressed like that."

Kairi looked down at herself and let out a blush before sitting up and fixing her very inappropriate looking dress that had gone much too far down and up at the exact same time. She wrapped her cloak around herself, looking extremely uncomfortable.

His expression softened as he moved over and hugged her while saying, "We'll see if Mrs. Claus maybe knows where we can get something that covers you a bit more, okay? I'm sorry if I've been making you uncomfortable."

She smiled at his honesty and said, "It's okay. You're my boyfriend, I'd probably be insulted if you didn't want to jump me when I'm parading around in something that doesn't know if it's a dress or a shirt that I'm pretty much falling out of."

He laughed and was about to say something else when there was a soft knock at the door. He opened it to see a short, plump woman with white hair pulled back into a bun, large glasses, and a friendly smile standing before them.

"Oh good, I thought I heard you awake," she said in a warm voice. "It is good to see you so well Sora, we didn't get to chat much last time, and this lovely young lady must be Kairi."

"Hello Mrs. Claus," Sora replied, "we were actually coming down to see you. Kairi's costume from Halloween Town isn't exactly... appropriate to be wandering around in the snow with and—"

"Oh yes I can certainly help with that," she eagerly interrupted as she stepped into the room. She reminded Sora of Flora, one of the three fairies from Aurora's world. She walked around Kairi, who refused to take off the cloak.

"Come now dear," the old woman said. "Oh, I suppose I should actually introduce myself to you, shouldn't I? I'm Mrs. Claus. Once I fix you up some new clothes we'll go down and have a bite to eat."

Kairi still looked a bit unsure and shy, so Mrs. Claus turned to Sora and said, "Perhaps I can show her what I mean by changing clothes with you, Sora dear? We don't want you to frighten the elves by being a vampire, now do we?"

Sora chuckled a bit and said, "Donald tried to fix it last time, but it just made us look like some type of Halloween-Christmas hybrid."

"Yes, well I have Christmas Magic, it's different," she said excitedly as she walked around Sora, eying him. "Yes, yes, I know just the thing. Would you like me to change your clothes?"

"Why not?" Sora said enthusiastically. How many people could say that they actually wore clothes made by the wife of Santa Claus?

Mrs. Claus made a quick motion with her hand, and Sora's clothes began to glow a bit. Kairi covered her eyes, and when she looked back he was wearing a warm, green jacket with white trimming around the collar, the bottom and the bottom of the sleeves, with golden buttons going down the front. His pants were a darker green and trimmed with white. His skin was back to normal, his fangs were gone, and he had a green Santa hat on his head. It was close to what Donald had done, but a little more Christmas-y and a little less frightening.

Kairi giggled and said, "You look adorable!"

Sora blushed bashfully and said, "Wouldn't you rather be wearing something like this?"

Kairi nodded eagerly and turned to Mrs. Claus and said, "If I still can, I would love for you to change my clothes please."

"Of course dear, but I need you to take off the cloak so that I can see what kind of size you are," Mrs. Claus said encouragingly.

Kairi turned red as she removed her cloak, but if Mrs. Claus had an opinion of her attire, she didn't say a word about it. Instead she just eyed Kairi for a moment before waving her hand, changing the clothes.

Kairi looked down at herself and let out a giggle. She matched Sora almost, wearing a jacket almost like his except that it was a bit longer, and it was pink. Likewise, her dark pink pants were a little differently styled than his, and her hat was pink as well.

"How's that dear?" the old woman asked.

"Thank you so much," she said happily as she spun around. She looked up at Sora, giggled happily and threw her arms around his neck.

Mrs. Claus laughed and said, "Now come, you poor things must be starving. You're both quite skinny and I bet you don't eat as you should." She motioned for them to follow her, and Kairi clasped Sora's hand tightly before following the friendly old lady down the stairs, taking in the quaint house more than the day before. She had been so self-conscious at the time, and now that she knew that she could actually move without exposing herself to the world she seemed so excited about everything.

"This place is so cute," she said happily as she took a seat at the wooden table. Everything was decorated like a Christmas fanatics dream, but it was all still done tastefully, somehow.

"Here, try this. It's my special French toast. I do hope neither of you are allergic to cinnamon," she placed the plates stacked full of food in front of them. "Oh, and this is maple syrup. I know you don't have it on Destiny Islands. Yes dear (she had seen Kairi about to ask a question), I do know where you're from. I am Santa's wife, you know. I'll go get you some milk to drink. There's nothing like milk with any sort of baked good." She quickly scurried off again, leaving the two teenagers in a stunned silence.

"Wow," Kairi mumbled, "she's so nice."

"Of course she is," Sora agreed happily as he poured a bit of the maple syrup on his breakfast. On Destiny Islands they tended to use different types of fruit sauces on everything like oranges, pineapples, coconuts, or other tropical fruits. He took one bite of the cinnamon French toast in the maple syrup and a stunned look passed over his face.

"What's wrong? Is it that bad?" Kairi asked him when she saw his face.

"These are amazing!" Sora cried out happily as he dug into them. "We have to get some of this maple syrup for home!" Seeing her boyfriend happily eating, she too picked up her fork and began eating the breakfast given to her. She was learning not to be nearly as picky as she was before, and she usually took Sora's cue on most foods. If he wouldn't go near it, then she usually would either. The only time she did once was with this fish dinner that she thought looked delicious but he was skeptical of it. The food poisoning later on proved to her that maybe she should listen more.

"You're right!" she said happily, her hungry stomach agreeing with her statement.

"I'm glad you like it," Mrs. Claus said as she came back in the room. "Santa is over in the work shop and wanted to know if you two wanted to help him with some of the toys."

"Already?" Sora asked in surprise. "Christmas is months away though, right?" He looked around at Kairi, hoping that they hadn't lost track of time that much.

"Oh no, no," she said with a laugh. "It's only the end of June. We work all year round, it just gets much busier towards the fall."

"What do you think Iri?" he questioned the girl, who looked up away from her delicious breakfast with a rather stunned look. She hadn't been paying attention at all. Sora laughed at this and said, "Want to go work in Santa's workshop later?"

_'We really should be going,' _Roxas pointed out, although Sora could feel his Nobody's want to stay.

'It's just one day,' Sora replied mentally. 'I think we need just a day of fun.'

_'You got your fun yesterday.'_ What he was referring to was not lost on Sora, who could hear the teasing in his voice.

'Shut up. Technically it was you and Naminé too,' Sora pointed out. His Nobody went silent and he turned his attention back to Kairi, who had nodded her head with excitement and ended up getting a bit of syrup on her nose. Sora laughed and reached over to her, poking her nose gently to take it off. She giggled a bit and tapped his shin with her foot.

Mrs. Claus watched them with a smile and shook her head while muttering to herself. "Young love, always so sweet, and at the same time unpredictable. I predict these two going far together."

**VVVVVV**

Santa's workshop was bustling and full of life. The wrapping machines were pushed aside for when they would be in use later on, but for now it was full of elves working on toys. Some were checking the machines, some were hammering some things together and others were designing things. It was all a productive cycle, and Sora wasn't quite sure if he wanted to disrupt it.

"Sora! Kairi!" Santa called out with a wave from where he was, giving approval to some new toys. They both walked over to him and he beamed at them while saying, "Your clothes look much better than those other ones."

"I'm sure Jack would beg to differ," Sora replied with a laugh.

"Oh, I'm sure he'll be over in his suit soon," Santa replied dryly. "He likes doing that. Kairi my dear, you look lovely."

Kairi flushed a bit and muttered a thank you. She grabbed Sora's arm and beamed at Santa as she asked, "Can we really help out here?"

"Of course," he told her. "You'll be working with the group experimenting on new types of toys and designing the prototypes. Just follow Howard here and he'll explain what to. Now go have some fun."

A small elf walked over to them and said, "Come on, we have all the fun around here. We have some really cool things on the go." Sora had thought that they were going to go over to the two or three elves who seemed to be designing quietly on the other side of the room, but instead they were leg to a large room that was loud with bangs, explosions and yells of laughter. Elves were rushing everywhere chasing toys, running from toys, running to put out fires and so on. It was pure chaos willed with laughter.

"Sora," Kairi suddenly whispered in awe. He looked around at her as she eagerly pointed towards where they seemed to be making some sort of dolls.

He chuckled at her a bit, remembering how, when they were twelve, she had still had a doll similar to that in her room that she later admitted she wanted to keep, but Riku had ended up ruining it. It was a long story involving hot chocolate, a seagull, an electric outlet and the cranky neighbour down the street. She had been deemed to hold to have a doll by that age, so it was never replaced.

"Go on," Sora said while gently pushing at her lower back to move her forward. "See what's so experimental about those dolls."

She giggled excitedly and went over to see exactly what they were doing. That left Sora alone to look around the room. It wasn't an item, but rather one of the elves that caught his attention. She was sitting in the corner, away from all the hustle and bustle, and working on something. Sora noticed that she was using a chisel, hammer and other things rather than the more high-end tools and computers that many others were using. Sora noticed that there was a large basket of sparkling gemstones beside her, as well as many wood shavings.

He curiously walked over to her and stared at what she was making. There were several finished boxes in front of her, all elaborately decorated. Now that he was closer, he saw all the paint, glue, drills and small welding objects around her. He knelt down and looked at the nearest finished box, eying it to make sure that it was dry before carefully picking it up, not wanting to break something that he knew she put so much work into.

It was a small, round box made of a polished wood. There was a floral pattern carved into it, a few patches of silver and gold painted here and there. The little lock in the front was gold with a tiny golden key beside it, and the hinges were the same colour of gold. A few small, green gemstones were placed securely in the wood, giving the entire thing a beautiful finish. He could hear that the little elf had stopped working, but she hadn't protested him touching the box so he carefully opened it. A cheerful, quiet tune started playing from it, and Sora had to smile. It was truly an amazing creation, and he knew that the little elf had made all of them herself. The one in his hand wasn't exactly what he'd call a perfect music box though, but he was sure that it would be to some people.

The little elf had to admit, she was curious about why he was interested in her music boxes, instead of lost in all of the exciting, experimental toys. She blushed a bit when he looked at her, knowing that she had been staring, and was slightly surprised when he asked, "Did you make all these? I don't see how this is experimental."

"Yes, I did" she answered. "They move things in here when they become less popular, to experiment if they're worth making here or just getting from other places." She chuckled a bit at the odd expression on Sora's face and asked, "You didn't really think that we made brand-named Barbies here, did you?"

"Well," Sora admitted sheepishly, "kinda."

"You're part right. We make certain things here," she explained, "but I'll let you ponder what those are. My music boxes are experimental now because nobody really wants them. They all want DVDs and iPods and holo-visions. I've always loved making music boxes though."

Sora knelt down next to her, looking at them all. He smiled a bit and said, "I think they look really nice."

The little elf looked pleased at the compliment when she noticed something in his eyes. It was a thoughtful look, and as she watched his eyes slide over to the girl that he had come with, she smiled and said, "But there are a few things you'd like to change."

He blushed with embarrassment and said, "Well, a bit, but what I have in my mind is a bit extravagant to get made here."

"Well, who would it be for?" she asked, even though she already knew the answer.

Sora turned a bit, smiling warmly as he watched Kairi helping one of the elves prying rocket ships out of a wall. He looked back at the elf, who had a knowing look on her face. "Her, but I think you already knew that." Sora looked back at Kairi. "I feel so horrible about missing her sixteenth birthday because we've been traveling and lost track of time. I guess I don't want just a normal present for her. 1I want to give her something special. I'll probably end up forgetting."

"You're the one who saved Santa from Oogie, right?"

"Yeah, that's right," he said as he looked back down at her. "Well, with the help of my friends."

She grinned broadly and said, "Then don't you worry. Can you look at me for a second?"

"Oh, you don't have to," Sora assured her quickly. "I mean, yes, I do appreciate it, but we're traveling a lot and-"

"Shhh," she instructed, and Sora instantly went silent. She continued to stare directly into his eyes for a few moments, and just as he was started to get uncomfortable to the point of squirming, she blinked, smiled and said, "I know the perfect music box to make. I know exactly what you want."

"You really don't have to," Sora told her. "What I was picturing would be difficult because it's not wood-"

"I know," she said. "I work with metal all the time too. It's no problem."

"And we're traveling a lot-"

"Then I'll wait to send it when you're back home," she insisted. "You saved Santa, and what you want is a present for someone you love. You have a good heart and I want to make it."

He smiled at her and said, "Well, thank you then. How do you know what I was thinking though?"

"You want it elegant and beautiful like it's made for a princess, but at the same time simple like your lives when you were younger. Right?" She giggled as his eyebrows shot up with amazement. "We hear and see things when the wish of a gift is pure and worthy. It's like a real example of karma. You wish good things for others, and the good things will come to them and you."

She jumped off of her stool and quickly got a small box, moving them in front of Sora. She smiled and said, "Oh, I'm Gemma by the way. Yes I know, Gemma loving music boxes and gemstones, kinda like fate when I was named. And you're Sora, right?"

"Yes," he admitted, staring with surprise as she opened the box to display gemstones that seemed to shine and sparkle much more than the ones in the basket. The little elf, Gemma, watched as he suddenly reached in and picked out a blue stone that seemed to shimmer different colours. She reached out, took it from his hand and said, "A lapis. I love these stones. Lets see..." she trailed off and picked out a similar but much lighter stone, "...how about a blue opal? These are really rare. Hmmm, and some small dark sapphires and white diamonds for accents."

Sora's eyes widened and he said, "That is automatically worth more than my house, I'm pretty sure."

"Is it worth more than her?" Gemma asked.

"No way," Sor answered instantly. "I don't think there's anything in existence that is worth more than she is. Not to me."

"That's why I'm willing to make something worth so much," she said. "A lot of the stones I use are fake, but these ones are real. You have a really good heart, and honest intentions, so I'm going to make the gift you want for her."

Sora smiled softly as he watched Kairi dance with one of the little elves. Looking back at Gemma, he smiled and said, "Thank you. You don't know how much it means to me."

"Not as much as she means to you."

He thought about this for a moment before saying, "No, you're right. It still means a lot though."

The little elf smiled. If she could be honest, she knew that all of the boxes that she created eventually went unnoticed and uncared for, but she had a feeling that Kairi was going to love and cherish this gift for a long time, and that's all the little elf wanted, for someone to appreciate and love her work instead of just throwing it away.

**VVVVVV**

It was snowing lightly again, and many of the elves were happily playing and frolicking in the snow, while others were ice skating and dancing to the Christmas music that poured out of the nearby speakers.

Sora and Kairi had decided to forgo the ice-skating, since neither knew how to do it and neither wanted to break a bone or anything. Instead, they laughed, danced, threw snowballs and otherwise enjoyed the snow in their warm clothes. It was a lot like Sora had imagined when he saw Jack and Sally dancing, but it was still different. Instead of holding hands, spinning around and laughing, Kairi had her arms wrapped around his middle, her body pressed close to his, as they twisted and laughed.

Sora let out a surprised 'oof' as Kairi suddenly decided to actually jump on him. His hands instantly went under his thighs to keep her up, but he ended up slipping on some ice and falling into the snow bank behind him.

Her laughter echoed through his ears as she pushed herself up so that she was sitting on his stomach, and he stared at her with a slightly stunned expression as the remainder of the snow fell around them. After a moment, his surprise went away and his hands grabbed a hold of her sides, fingers flexing and causing her to break into laughter while trying to get away from the tickling fingers. Sora rolled them over so that she was the one in the snow and he was the one on top of her so that she couldn't get away.

Kairi giggled hysterically and said, "Stop Sora! Stop!"

"What was that?" he asked playfully. "Don't stop?"

"No!" she screamed with a laugh. She pushed with all her might, but he wouldn't budge. Despite her squirming from his ticking fingers, she managed to move her arms to the back of Sora's head and pulled his face towards hers, kissing him deeply. She waited until she felt Sora returning the heated kiss, his hands stopping their movements and settling on her lower back, and then she pushed with all of her might, flipping them over again. "I win."

Sora stared at her, wide eyed before grinning a bit and saying, "I have the feeling that you pushed me behind this snow bank on purpose."

"Baby, you're not the only one who just wants to push someone behind a tree or a building, or in this case a snow bank, and have their way with them," Kairi replied slyly as she moved to kiss him again.

"You know," Sora said in between quick kisses, "you might have to get off before I seriously consider doing inappropriate things to you when there's a bunch of innocent little elves just on the other side of this hill."

Kairi backed away a bit and stared at him for a moment before moving off of him and helping him get off of the ground. Sora was curious about what she planned to do as she took his hand in her own and started heading towards the thick, pine forest. He quickly realized that she had no clue where she was going, and that her only goal was to get into a place that was thick with trees and hard to see. Then she turned around and kissed him again. Just like in the alleyway, his hands began to wonder before they began playing with the golden buttons on her pink jacket.

"Are you sure?" he asked skeptically when he managed to pull away for a moment.

"Not for actual...you know...umm…intercourse," she muttered, staring up at him through her dark eyelashes, "but we don't know when we'll ever get the chance to be in such a peaceful place so yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm sure."

That was all the answer Sora needed.

**VVVVVV**

Santa was talking to Jack when Kairi came running back through the snow, Sora running after her a moment later. The two watched with amusement as Sora caught up to Kairi, grabbed her around the waist and twirling around, her laughter echoing around them.

"Where have you guys been? We thought you left without saying goodbye," Jack said to them as they came over.

"Playing in the snow," Sora said, "and we ended up getting a little lost in the woods, but it's all good." It technically wasn't a lie, they had gotten a little lost coming out of the woods, and in a certain sense, they had definitely been 'playing' but Sora didn't feel like explaining anything else to Father Christmas and the King of Halloween. Of course, all the little elves running through the snow were sweating and with bright red cheeks, so they had come into the town running so that no one would get suspicious.

"We wouldn't leave without saying goodbye," Kairi said, an appalled look on her face.

"Yes, nothing to get back on the naughty list, right?" Santa said with a knowing smirk. Kairi blushed violently and stuttered, but as she caught the confused look on Santa's face at her reaction, she realized that the old man wasn't implying anything. He was referring to not being on a list because they hadn't believed in him at one point of time, and he assumed neither wanted to get off of the nice list. His eyes looked from her to Sora with confusion, before blushing with embarrassment and excusing himself, saying that he needed to check on Rudolph and hurried off.

Kairi groaned and covered her face with her hands, knowing that she had given them away with her assumptions. Of course Santa wasn't thinking anything dirty, and now the poor old man was embarrassed because of her.

"I hate my life sometimes," Kairi muttered as she moved to Sora to hide in his shirt.

Sora chuckled at her and said, "You know what they say about assuming."

She glared up at him and muttered, "I'm assuming that you won't continue that sentence, otherwise you can assume that there won't be anymore of anything again."

"What sentence?" he asked quickly, causing her to laugh.

"Well, I don't know what that was all about," Jack said suddenly, "but are you going to be staying any longer?"

"We can't," Sora admitted. "There are a lot of places that are in trouble, Jack. We'll try to stop by again if we can."

Jack nodded his head and said, "You both be careful. I know bad, and I have a feeling that something badder than bad is coming...and it's coming soon."

**Author's Note**

Yes, I know I should have wrote 'something worse than bad…' but it's speech so I'm allowed to do it like that.

So I imagine you all are in the middle of playing Birth By Sleep. I know I am. Well actually I'm at the very very end of Terra's game and he was the first one I chose. I got through fighting some of the final bosses but the last one is kicking my ass. Methinks I need more cures in my deck.

Not gonna lie, I feel so bad for him while playing this. Kinda like I felt bad for Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars 3, knowing what was going to happen to him. Actually, now that I think about it, those two story lines are pretty close, with just a few basic plot differences. It's sad.

You know what? I bet in like…KH3, whenever that comes out (probably not before the end of the world), Sora's going to use the x-blade or something. It's so weird seeing it written like 'x-blade' but pronounced differently. Screw you Square Enix. Can't make things normal.

Sorry or the late update. Again, next chapter, almost the opposite of this one. Thank you to everyone who reviewed!

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	29. Bleed It Out

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Twenty-Eight – Bleed It Out_

A feeling of longing passed through Kairi as they walked through the silent, cold darkness. She longed for the warmth and comfort that the light brought, she longed for peace like they had experienced in Christmas Town, and she longed to just be able to be a normal teenager, trying to figure out her life with her loyal boyfriend at her side. She didn't like the darkness, and the more she and Sora walked through the darkened corridors, the more she felt a pressure weighing on her, as if trying to shove the heart out of her own body. They had been warned more than once that staying in the darkness too long could cause them to lose their hearts, but they had no choice. It was the only way that they could travel.

Still, she felt like something was particularly weighing down on her this time. Maybe it was just because they had come from such a peaceful world, and now they were heading into a possible war zone. The feeling that they were being corralled this entire time wouldn't leave her. These people could control elements in nature in ways that Kairi had never heard of, and not simple things like fire, lightning or water, and the purple-haired one had proven that she could at least get into people's minds, so the thought that they were interfering with where the dark corridors were going wasn't too crazy of an idea.

Suddenly, Sora stopped walking, and even though she was holding his hand, she was trailed behind him a bit and ended up walking into him. She looked up at him after seeing nothing but more darkness in front of them, and felt a thrill of fear pass through her when she saw the way his eyes were narrowed, staring in front of them. She might not have been able to see anything, but there was definitely something there.

"Sora?" she whispered, after a moment of silence. Nothing was moving around them, but if he thought there was something there, there probably was.

"There's-" Sora was cut off as the darkness in front of him seemed to erupt with stone, causing his hand to be ripped out of hers violently. He landed a few meters away with a groan.

"Sora!" she yelled and made to run to him, but skidded to a stop when Jorix appeared in front of her.

"No, no," he said when she went to back away from him, a stone wall appearing behind her. He moved his hand and the stone quickly got thicker, moving her closer to him in the process. He grinned at her and said, "a huge improvement from the lion form, and I was tempted by bestiality then."

Kairi shot him a disgusted look and summoned her Keyblade. Jorix just grinned at her before moving his hand in a quick motion. She waiting for stone to spring up or surround her, but instead she heard Sora let out a yell of pain.

A huge stone had been dropped onto the brunet's leg, crushing a part of the bone on contact. Kairi let out a scream as another one appeared, heading for his arm, but Sora moved it just in time. Then a third one appeared, hovering just over his head.

"No!" she shrieked, "Stop it! Stop!"

"Put the Keyblade away," he said simply. She felt like ramming Oathkeeper into his face, but he seemed to predict this and added, "You kill me, that stone falls."

Tears built up in her eyes as Sora grunted and said, "Just run Kairi!" She couldn't leave him there to die though, she couldn't. Oathkeeper vanished.

"That's a good girl," Jorix muttered. "Hmm...I was only supposed to capture you and bring you back to base but—yes, yes, she won't mind if we're a little late."

Kairi tried to back away again but she was suddenly completely surrounded by the stone. She watched as Jorix turned around, waved at Sora and said, "We'll just be going now."

She heard Sora yell at Jorix as the stone surrounded both of them, and he suddenly grabbed her by her waist, yanking her towards him.

"I'm not expected back with you for a while," Jorix said, and though the stone cut out any sort of light, she knew that he was grinning that twisted grin again as she tried to get away from him, but the stone had shrunk around them and she couldn't move away. She felt his breath on her, and she felt one of his hands starting to creep down towards the hem of her dress while the other trailed up towards her chest. "So we're going to have some fun in a more private place."

She felt the space decrease more as she was shoved so close to him that not a single speck of dust could travel between them. Kairi let out a small cry of pain as his hand gripped her so hard that she was sure his short nails were drawing blood, but she was soon distracted by unwanted lips pressing to hers, a foreign tongue that she did not want near her assaulting her mouth. She tried to push him away, but she couldn't move in the least now.

Suddenly, the stone vanished, and she took her opportunity quickly. Moving with lightning speed, she slammed her knee into his crotch. He yelled out in pain and pushed her away as he doubled over. She had no clue where she was, but she did the only thing her mind was telling her to do: run.

**VVVVVV**

Sora stumbled through the darkness, moving as quickly as he could despite his broken leg. It was swelling up and dark purple, and it hurt like hell, but he ignored it. He probably shouldn't have been walking on it, but he needed to get out of the darkness. He needed to find Kairi. Roxas was visible, and while he was still transparent and ghost like, Sora was somehow still able to interact with him enough so that Roxas could help him move on the broken leg. The blond didn't tell his other that they should stop to get it healed; he completely understood Sora's determination to find Kairi as soon as possible. The only problem was that they had no clue where they were going to end up or where Jorix had taken her.

The exit at the end of the darkness appeared quickly, stunning both of them. They ended up stumbling through the entrance, falling to the ground in a grand spectacle. Roxas was sure he heard another bone in Sora's leg snap again, and Sora was sure he felt one snap, but that wasn't what was important right now.

He looked up quickly, trying to judge where they were. The world was torn apart, in ruins, with the remnants of the darkness still lingering and oozing in the dark water and the violent purple and black sky. He knew exactly what this world was, and felt despair creeping over him.

They were home.

Seeing the pure damage that was done, not hearing a single indicator of any sort of life, and not having Kairi's soothing presence next to him caused Sora to break. Tears streaked down his cheeks and he yelled, "What am I supposed to do?" He wasn't talking to Roxas, or anyone in particular. He couldn't get up anymore, his leg throbbed too much, and he felt like the darkness was about to swallow his heart whole. "What do I do?" he repeated weakly.

Roxas sat next to him, not sure how to reply to this. He had no good comebacks because he could feel the hopelessness passing through him as well. He and Sora were one in the same, after all, and Naminé had been taken with Kairi.

He suddenly looked over as Sora slumped to the ground, unconscious. Roxas was about to try and wake him, but tiredness passed over him, and he knew then and there that Sora hadn't just passed out.

Something was dragging them back into their heart.

**VVVVVV**

Kairi wished that she knew where she was. Naminé was beside her, and having another presence that she could actually see made her feel a lot better. There were no windows she could climb out of in this weird stone house, and no doors that she could unlock. This house had been made with the intent on keeping a Keyblade Bearer trapped, and Kairi half wondered if this was where their enemies had been hiding all along. So far though, she had only seen Jorix.

She had seen him once since she had escaped. He was hunting her in the house, but he had yet to find her. She could hear him from time to time, calling out to her, taunting her. She shuddered at the thought of the vile things that he said he was going to do if he got a hold of her. He was beyond angry at the stunt she had pulled earlier, and had loudly declared that he changed his plans of just touching and teasing her to worse things. She felt a wave of nausea pass through her at the thought of his tongue in her mouth, and she couldn't help but be afraid of what he'd do if he caught her.

"Shh," Naminé suddenly hissed, shoving Kairi back a bit. The two retreated behind a large plant and looked as the enraged young man walked passed them.

"Kairi," he called out loudly, "you can't keep running! I will catch you, and when I do I've decided that I'm going to fuck you so hard that you'll bleed. You definitely won't be able to call it rape, because I'll have you begging for more. Who knows, maybe I'll find some friends to come and join in. I bet you'd like that."

Kairi couldn't help but let out a whimper and moved back a bit, some of the plants rustling in the process. Suddenly, he stopped walking, and she held her breath. It all came out in a scream as the stone walls behind her shifted, sealing her arms in them before becoming solid again.

Jorix knocked the plant to the floor and said, "There you are. Got tired of running from me? Or did the offer earlier sound too tempting?" He ran his finger along the zipper of her dress before yanking it down.

"No!" she yelled as she tried to shift and struggle, but he was pressing against her legs too much for her to move them. "No, please!"

He tossed her pink dress to the floor before saying, "You're right, we can't do this here." He grabbed her and picked her up, the stone shifting so that it was shackles binding her hands together tightly. She struggled and tried to get away, but his grip was too strong, leaving bruises on her waist where he grabbed her. Even if she could summon her Keyblade, there was no way she could use it with her hands bound so tightly.

She felt a thrill of terror pass through her as he entered a bedroom, and she knew that he fully intended to go through with his threat. She struggled more until her eyes caught sight of something behind him.

Naminé was still outside of her body. Kairi knew that the blonde Nobody couldn't really do anything as she was, but Kairi knew that if she could keep Naminé out of her body, she wouldn't have to go through what she was about to.

"Go!" Kairi yelled out loud, startling Jorix. "Naminé! Go!"

He looked around, not seeing another person anywhere. He eyed her oddly before saying, "Distracting me won't stop this. You know that right?" She winced as he moved to her neck and his teeth sunk in painfully. She felt his lips going lower as he started removing her shirt and her eyes opened again. She would be damned if she just let him do this. No, if she was going down, she was going down fighting. She did the only thing she could in her current position: she bit his ear, and she bit it painfully hard.

He yelled in pain as he jerked away, and the splash of blood that sprayed over her and the fact that she had to spit out a chunk of his ear let her know that she had got him good.

"My ear!" he yelled angrily, and she could see (with pride) that the chunk had been a rather big one. "You bitch!"

She let out her own scream of pain as his fist made contact with her face over and over again. She felt her nose break and her vision was stained with red as blood got in her eyes, a combination of her own and his. She could hear him saying something about her regretting what she did, but she had stopped paying attention. The stone was keeping her in place as he stopped hitting her and started removing his own clothes. She was helpless. Her head was spinning from pain and panic, and she couldn't think of about anything else but the situation she was in, so she did the only thing that she could. She closed her eyes, allowing tears of pain and sadness to leak out of her eyes while internally begging Sora to save her as she faded in and our of consciousness.

**VVVVVV**

Roxas' eyes snapped open and he jerked up quickly, looking around to see where they were. Just like he predicted, they were on the stained glass platform that represented their heart. He pushed himself up and saw Sora sitting up a few feet away, looking both concerned and enraged at the same time.

"This is totally not the time!" the brunet yelled angrily as he pushed himself up. He had no broken leg here, so as painful as it would have been to try and stand if they were awake, Sora was fine at the moment.

"You want to find Kairi, right?"

They both wheeled around and saw a figure standing only a few meters away from them. What stunned both of them though was that this figure was clad from head to toe in armour. Sora's mind suddenly flashed to the dream that had been plaguing him, and he came to the quick realization that this person's armour was almost identical to the others. There were a few small differences though; the main one being that the knight in his dream had dark coloured armour and this person's was brighter.

"Who are you?" Sora demanded to know.

"How are you here?" Roxas asked at the exact same time.

The knight chuckled and said, "I'm here to help. I've been guiding both of you this entire time. Now you need my help again."

"How can you help?" Sora asked. "And of course I want to find Kairi. More than anything."

"I'm going to teach you how," he explained. "Your heart is special Sora, in more ways than anyone actually realizes it. I told you before, a long time ago, that you were the one who would open the door. The door to light. You've been using corridors of darkness because it's all Roxas and Naminé know, but it makes them, you, weaker every time. You are powerful enough to set things right, but the darkness has been suppressing you. You've got to stop. Roxas has such little control over where those corridors end up because it's not natural to you. There are other, better ways to travel that take less energy, but for now, to save Kairi, you need to stop using corridors of darkness and start using corridors of light."

**VVVVVV**

It was a long shot, but Naminé grasped the connection between Sora and Kairi's heart tightly and started moving from Kairi to Sora. There was nothing she could do to help Kairi herself, but Sora could help. She needed to get into his heart, and maybe the connection would lead him to her. She tried not to concentrate on Kairi, because if she did she would hear both her mental and verbal cries of pain as she begged Jorix to stop and her pleas for Sora to come.

Tears built up in Naminé's eyes. She already knew that Kairi wouldn't let her into those memories later on, and she wouldn't pry because the selfish part of her didn't want to have to suffer through being tortured and raped too.

Finally, Naminé knew she was getting somewhere. She had been climbing up the stairs that led from Kairi's platform to Sora's, and now she was almost there.

'Hang on Kairi,' Naminé thought. 'I'm almost there.'

**VVVVVV**

"Sora!"

He shot around and stared at Naminé suddenly appeared in the platform. Roxas quickly moved to her, hugging her tightly while trying to wipe away her tears. She shook her head and looked at Sora and said, "You need to get to Kairi now!"

"I'm working on it," Sora said while casting the knight a look. "You're sure that's all I have to do?"

"Yes," the knight replied. "It'll be easier with Kairi because of your strong connection, but aside from that, instead of concentrating on a world, concentrate on trying to connect your heart to those of your friends in the world you want to go to. You could also concentrate on worlds you've been to before."

"He's raping her!" Naminé shrieked as she sobbed. "He's torturing her! Please Sora! I can still hear her. She keeps calling for you."

Sora felt pure terror go through him, freezing his body like ice.

"Go."

Looking back at the knight, all three of them were shocked as he removed his helmet, revealing Roxas' face. He shook his head and said, "You need to get to her, now. Just do what I said Sora."

"Who-"

"My name's Ven," he answered. "Now go. I've used healing magic so your leg should be alright to walk on. It'll probably hurt and if you don't get it fixed properly it will probably break again. Healing was never my strong suit. Aqua was always better with magic than me. Anyway, you need to go, now."

"Ven...Thank you," Sora replied as everything faded out.

When he opened his eyes he was on the destroyed shores of Destiny Islands on his own. He stood up, feeling a bit of pain in his leg like the mysterious Ven had predicted, but he ignored it. Concentrating, he summoned his Keyblade, focusing his light on the connection between his heart and Kairi's. He watched as a swirling portal of white and gold appeared in front of him, and he didn't hesitate to run inside, knowing that it would lead to his girlfriend.

"Hang on Iri," he muttered, "I'm coming to get you."

**VVVVVV**

Kairi couldn't scream anymore, and she didn't want to. Her screams of pain only seemed to egg him on more, making him laugh and smile in the twisted way that he did. Instead, she was like a rag doll, detached from her body. She knew what was happening, she was still slightly conscious, but she couldn't feel anything, and she didn't react to anything. Jorix didn't seem to care what she did; he was enjoying himself far too much to bother with what she was feeling. All he wanted was for her to be conscious, having just slightly healed her whenever she started to pass out so that she would stay awake.

As a result of her almost out-of-body state, she wasn't aware of the light that appeared in the room, and Jorix was too distracted with her to care, thinking it was just a power surge to one of the lights. Or he did, until he was ripped off of Kairi violently and thrown to the wall.

The blue-haired boy coughed violently from his impact to the wall and felt a thrill of pure fear passing through him as he stared up at Sora's face.

Sora was so far passed enraged that he looked positively serene, as if he was one with his hate and anger. Jorix would have preferred seeing the anger, because there was just something about the perfectly calm look on Sora's face that scared him beyond anything else.

"You know, I can use forms without my friends help now," Sora said calmly. "Well, sort of I've been working on it. I couldn't quite figure out what I wanted to do to you though. Kill you with two Keyblades in Valor? Or maybe magic in Wisdom? What do you think about a bit of both with Master Form? Or I could just annihilate you in Final. Then it came to me, you deserve to suffer."

Jorix felt horrified as Sora's entire body started turning black, his eyes turning a vibrant yellow. He moved to use his power against Sora, picturing a rock erupting from the floor and impaling the Keyblade Master.

But it didn't happen.

He quickly tried to get away from the Keyblade Master, who was now in his Anti Form, watching him like a hunter watches his prey. The only problem with his attempted retreat though was that he ran into a wall made of crystal.

"I told you just to bring her back," Crysita's voice came from the other side of the room. He looked around and saw the purple-haired woman shatter the stone holding Kairi to the bed, but the redhead didn't move or acknowledge that she was free. Surprisingly, Crysita simply walked away from Kairi and said, "I don't like when people try to go outside of my plans in any way, which is exactly what you did. She useless to us like that. She was a double shot of bait for him (she pointed at Sora) and a powerful tool of light. She's a rag-doll now."

"Wait!" Jorix cried out as Crysita turned towards the archway and started walking away. "You're leaving me here with him? Alone?"

She snorted and said, "Of course not. I'm just getting out of the way so that I can watch him tear you apart without getting my clothes dirty. You're expendable Jorix, you always have been. Just another loose end that I need to get rid of."

Sora, surprisingly, was in complete control of his Anti Form just like he could control all of his other ones. He had simply sat back for the bit, enjoying the horrified look on Jorix's face when he realized that not even his leader was going to help him. It was enough to make him start laughing. It wasn't his normal happy laugh though, no, this was a cruel, almost psychotic laugh.

Jorix let out a yell of shock as Sora lunged at him. The Keyblade Master hovered over him and said, "I'm going to rip your heart out slowly, so you feel the entire thing, but before that, I'm going to tear off your balls and shove them down your throat."

Crysita raised an eyebrow with interest. The dark side of the Keyblade Master was small, but even that small part, when utilized the right way, was scarily evil. She didn't flinch at all as Jorix started screaming in pain, instead she just grinned a bit, glad that he was finally out of the way. He had been moving too far away from the plan ever since he became obsessed with the Princess. He wasn't worth all of the trouble. Besides, it was ingrained into her that it was absolutely unacceptable to rape a woman. It was wrong in many worlds, but the world she came from worshiped women over men, so it was considered one of the worst things that a person could do, worse than even murder or genocide. Crysita was evil, but it was a belief she still had.

Jorix deserved what he was going to get.

**VVVVVV**

Sora didn't regret what he did for a moment. He didn't regret slowly killing Jorix, and he didn't regret letting Crysita seem him at his lowest point before she left without a word. The only thing he did regret was taking so long to get to Kairi.

He had put the clothes he could find back onto her, wrapped his jacket around her waist (since he couldn't find her pink dress), picked her up and walked through a portal that he had created moments before. She had been conscious, just staring blankly at the ceiling. She didn't give a sign that she realized he was there at all. The only kind of reaction he got out of her was after he picked her up when she leaned her head on his shoulder and fell unconscious. If he hadn't felt the warm breath on his neck as she shakily breathed in and out, he would have assumed that she was dead.

Finally, he got to his intended destination: Christmas Town. Later on, he would wonder why he went there instead of Disney Castle since he could pinpoint where he wanted to go. It was Naminé who would say that maybe he was ashamed that he hadn't managed to protect Kairi and he didn't want any of the others to see it. They needed to go somewhere though, and Christmas Town was the comforting place that they just left, so it made sense to go there.

Mrs. Claus had been holding a tray of cookies when he rushed into the house, dropping them to the floor when she saw Kairi. Everything from that point on was a blur to Sora as he put Kairi in the bed that they had been sleeping in before, and then he was pushed out of the room. Then, he just sat there, staring blankly at the door.

He had been waiting only fifteen minutes when a terrified scream came from the door. It wasn't just any scream though. It was Kairi screaming his name as if her life depended on it. He felt like his heart was about to burst out of his chest, and he felt both Roxas and Naminé's fear. He couldn't say he was all that surprised that Naminé had yet to return to Kairi's heart, but at the same time he was annoyed at her for abandoning Kairi in a way.

A few elves were trying to hold her down to stop her from thrashing, and he knew automatically that this wasn't going to help any. He rushed to her side and said, "Let her go!" They did as he asked and he turned his attention to Kairi while saying, "Kairi? I'm here. I'm here baby."

She suddenly stopped struggling and tensed up at the masculine voice. She glanced over at him, letting out a small whimper and mumbling, "Sora." She just kept saying his name over and over again. He cautiously approached her, not wanting to set her off again. He got close to the bed and she suddenly grabbed his arm, yanking him down so that he was sitting beside her. Once he was sitting, she rested her head on his thigh, hiding her face against the fabric of his shorts as she finally started to cry. Sobbing hysterically was a better way to describe it.

"I'm going to go get her a drink," Mrs. Claus whispered and motioned for the elves to follow her. Sora hadn't said what had happened, but she knew, and her heart went out to the girl. At least she wasn't cringing away from him.

"I'm here," he mumbled as he placed his hand on her back. Sora felt her tense up and realized that he had touched one of the bruises that had somehow gotten on her back. He quickly moved his hand to the top of her head, gently running his fingers through her hair, and she relaxed a bit. Kairi stared up at him the entire time with an almost heartbreaking look. He knew that she wouldn't feel comfortable around other men for the longest time. The way she was looking at him though, it was like he was her only lifeline, and maybe he really was.

She was lying out in front of him, curled up at his side, allowing him to easily see the true extent of her injuries. She was only in a new pair of underwear that the Mrs. Claus had provided, given that hers had been too torn and ripped to really do anything with. Her thick, winter clothes were beside her, but they had needed to see her injuries. Being in so little and waking up in a completely different place was no doubt what had added to her panic when she woke up. He had known, while carrying her back, that she was bruised, broken and bloody, but he hadn't realized exactly how much.

Now that the blood was cleared and many of the cuts had been healed, he could clearly see all the bruises left from where the bastard had struck her. Along with those bruises were ones from where Jorix's hands had gripped her so tightly on her waist that it left hand-shaped marks, and dark marks from where he had bit her. There were dark bruises melding together all over her face, enough to make one of her eyes swell shut while the other was bloodshot, and he could easily tell that her nose was broken. Mrs. Claus hadn't got the chance to fix that before she woke up. On top of that, she had small cuts all over her body from where Jorix had used his sharp, stone tools to make sure she was suffering. There were several Js all over her, and Sora felt his blood boil again at the sight. He knew that most of them would fade without leaving a mark, but he had a feeling that the one on her hip would leave a J shaped scar. It made him wish that he could bring Jorix back just to kill him again.

Kairi winced as she heard a door slam shut downstairs. Sora watched as she managed to sit up, despite the aches that were no doubt passing through her body. He didn't stop her though. She looked at him almost pleadingly, and he shifted a bit so that he was sitting with his back against the headboard of the bed and his legs were crossed. He then carefully helped her as she moved so that she was sitting in his lap, her head resting on his shoulder and she sniffled, wincing from the pain of her broken nose. He moved his hand to the top of her back and gently started rubbing small circles. He felt her tense up for a moment before relaxing against him, her hands gripping the front of his shirt tightly.

He rubbed her back soothingly before saying, "I'm sorry. I'm so, so, so sorry. I should have been able to find you quicker, I should have been able to stop him from taking you. I don't deserve to be around you anymore, let alone be your boyfriend."

She whimpered and said, "Please don't leave me. Please, please don't leave. Please don't let him take me again. I'll do anything. Please don't leave me alone."

She was starting to hyperventilate, so Sora hugged her and rocking her back and fourth as he spoke, "If that's what you want, I'll stay." He felt her nod her head quickly. "Don't worry, I took care of him. He'll never hurt you or anyone else again. No one will ever hurt you again."

There was a silence, and he took comfort in the sound of her breathing, the sound letting him know that she was still there, that she was still alive. She cringed again when Mrs. Claus opened the door, but soon calmed down when she saw who it was.

The old woman smiled and put down a tray with two mugs filled to the brim with steaming hot chocolate and marshmallows as well as some cookies with a bowl of icing for them to put on as much as they wanted. The woman smiled warmly and said, "It will calm your stomach. If you need anything, I'll be right downstairs, alright?"

Sora nodded but Kairi didn't move. The second the door closed again, she let out a small sob. Before Sora could ask what was wrong she said, "I'm a whore. A good for nothing, dirty, used, filthy, disgusting, slutty, nasty, probably disease filled whore."

"No your not," Sora replied gently. "You didn't ask him to do it." He was shaking slightly, from both fear for her and pure rage of astronomical proportions. Never before had he been so enraged about something. He was beyond angry with Jorix, wishing that he could bring the bastard back to life just to kill him over and over again slowly and painfully. Roxas and Naminé quickly agreed not to tell anyone else exactly what had transpired in the mysterious stone structure.

She sobbed and said, "He took it. He took my—then he just kept going. It hurt so much. I wanted it to be you. You wouldn't hurt me. I'm a used slut."

Sora hugged her firmly as she cried. He had no clue what to do but to let her know that he was there for her, that he would protect her, and that he didn't blame her for any of it. He very gently kissed her forehead, not liking the way she tensed up but soon relaxed. Her tears had stopped so he took the opportunity to speak. "Listen Iri, you are not a whore, you are not a slut. You didn't want any of it. None of this is your fault, do you understand?"

"But-"

"Do you understand?"

She didn't answer, instead saying, "He wouldn't stop hitting me, and then he hurt so much when he—and he kept cutting me, and at the end he-" Her face went such a pale white so fast that Sora knew something was wrong. He couldn't get a word in as she suddenly lunged out of his arms, vomiting on the forest green carpet beneath them and opening a few of her closed cuts again. She was sobbing again lightly, muttering something while looking around. Her eyes fell on the hot chocolate, but she wasn't focused on the drink but on something else on the tray.

Sora didn't have the time to move to stop her. She grabbed the butter-knife, and with an amazing amount of force, she stabbed it into her body twice before he could stop her. She was screaming again, so Santa and Mrs. Claus came rushing in.

"Please, please get it out. Just let me get it out. I don't want his baby. Let me get it out!" " she said wildly. They pushed her back on the bed and she let out a scream and started struggling, the blood flowing from her body onto the bed.

"Sora," Santa said without turning to him, "go wait out-"

"No!" Kairi shrieked trying to reach out for him. "Sora, no!"

"I'm not going anywhere," he said, letting her grab his hand with her bloody ones. "I'm staying with you."

"Did I get it? Is it out?" she asked him, her panicking mind not retraining much of her actions and words.

Sora knew exactly what she was referring to. She had panicked, thinking that she was going to get pregnant. In her moment of insanity she had stabbed herself hoping that it would damage her enough so that she wouldn't. He glanced down at where Santa and Mrs. Claus were trying to stop the bleeding without magic. Using magic was only a temporary fix and didn't work all the time for the worst injuries. He squeezed her hand and said, "Yeah, its out."

Later on, while Kairi was asleep, they checked her for both disease and pregnancy. They had given her something akin to a morning after pill, and that (or maybe her stabbing) had stopped her from becoming pregnant. She was also given medication had stopped the infection that had been developing. Luckily, no life-threatening or non-curable diseases had appeared on any sort of test. They still recommended that she keep taking some antibiotics for a little while though.

She nodded her head, calming down. Sora was surprised that she wasn't panicking because of how close the Claus' were to her lower body. Despite her currently rather insane mind frame, she seemed to catch this and said, "You're here. I know they won't hurt me."

Sora smiled a bit at her unwavering faith in him. He knew a lot of people would have just cringed away from everyone of the opposite genre, and while she had panicked when even male elves were near her, she seemed perfectly comfortable with Sora. Well, not perfectly comfortable, but comfortable enough.

"Kairi," he said, "I'm going to put you to sleep, okay?"

"Don't leave me," she said quickly, her non-swollen eye widening with panic. "Please. Don't go."

"I won't, I promise," he assured her. "Nothing will happen while I'm here. I—I love you."

She tried to smile a bit and said, "Can you kiss me, Sora?" He was visibly surprised by the request. "I don't want to go to sleep remembering what his felt like. I just want to remember yours."

Sora moved close to her, but he let her close the distance between them in a quick, innocent kiss. Despite the fact that she had just stabbed herself and was bleeding badly from the area around her uterus, she managed to smile at him. Sora smiled back weakly and said, "Sleepga."

She closed her eyes and fell into a deep sleep, and it was only after he was sure that she was asleep that he let the tears fall from his eyes.

**Author's Note**

This was mainly the reason why I upped the rating. Now I know there's probably some confusion as to why I added this in from the original, and the reason won't really be seen in this, but when I get around to the others is when it really comes around.

As for Kairi's behavior, I did research it and some people can just snap afterward, while others try to hide it, and so on. Kairi, simply put, snapped but because she trusts Sora so much to almost a fault, she'll continue to be alright while close to him, but not quite as comfortable as before. I've been fortunate enough to not know anyone who has been raped though, so I've never actually seen a person react to it in real life.

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	30. Call To Courage

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Twenty-Nine – Call To Courage_

Donald curled up in his blankets happily, dreaming of life back at the palace with Daisy. Unfortunately, his happy dreams were always interrupted as the dream versions of his nephews ended up doing something to annoy him. Sometimes this caused him to wake up and think about how much, even if they got on his nerves, he did care about his nephews; most of the time it caused him to wake up wanting to zap them all with his most powerful thunder spell.

This time, however, Donald was interrupted from his sleepy musings by a jerk of the ship as it was turned around violently. He grabbed his staff and stumbled into the hall, only to crash into Goofy who was rushing out of his room directly across the hall. They spared each other a glance before turning and taking off towards the bridge. What they found there was confusing, to say the least.

Mickey had taken the autopilot off and was starting to fly like a mad-mouse (it made Donald almost reminiscent about the time that Sora—cause it was completely Sora's fault even though he had been sitting in the driver's seat—crashed them into Deep Jungle), and anything in their path was quickly blown up. Midori was standing in the middle of the room, her eyes wide with confusion as she looked from the wall beside where Donald and Goofy were, to Mickey and back. She had grasped the back of one of the chairs tightly, so she didn't go flying, but apparently that wasn't the case for Riku. Donald had to double take when he saw the Keyblade Bearer practically stuck to the wall. He wasn't sure he wanted to know how Riku was defying gravity, and he stopped Goofy from asking.

"What's going on?" he asked as he approached the King. He kept his respectful tone, but as a friend he wanted to strangle Mickey for waking him from his sleep, even though he hadn't really been asleep, but that wasn't the point. They had a difficult time at Olympus Coliseum and would have ended up as Heartless if it wasn't for Hercules getting a Keyblade.

"We just got a transmission from home," Mickey explained, a bit of panic evident in his voice.

"What happened?" Goofy aske; seemingly more alert than normal.

"The town is freezing over," the mouse explained with a grim look. "At least, from one end it is. The other side is turning into wood."

"Carverin and Sarlio," Midori said quickly, a bit of an angry growl to her voice.

Mickey nodded and said, "They're getting closer to the castle. Chip and Dale guess that they'll be there soon."

Donald quickly jumped into his seat to help make the trip easier and as fast as possible, Goofy doing the same as he jumped into a third seat.

Midori managed to gain her footing back enough to launch herself over the back of the seat she was holding. She turned around and faced Riku, rubbing her sore cheek that had made contact with the headrest of the seat earlier, and asked, "Hey, Silver?"

"What?" He had long accepted this name, after unsuccessfully trying to put her off of it.

"How are you stuck half way up a wall when I know for a fact that there was nothing on it?" she asked, raising a green eyebrow curiously.

Riku stared at her for a moment before saying, "The combination of levitation magic and a mouse with road rage is never a good one. Just take my word on that."

Midori would be sure to keep that fact in her mental book of situations she should avoid.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

Sora stared up at the large castle in front of them with a distracted gaze. It was an old structure, dark and gloomy. If he didn't know that the inhabitants were friendly, then he would have been slightly put off by the look of it. A slight shift to his right drew his attention away from the castle.

Kairi stood beside him, her eyes darting around nervously. She could see through both of her eyes now, and the bruising was completely gone. She had a few scars, but they were nothing compared to the mental scars that were left behind. She had been getting so confident in herself, so sure of all of her movements, but now she had reverted to a very dependent person, who was afraid to stray too far away from Sora.

Kairi tensed up as she thought she heard something behind her and twisted around quickly to see what it was. She winced as a sharp flash of pain shot through her, and moved her arms so that they were covering the front of her body.

Sora saw her wince and carefully moved his arm around her shoulder, pulling her closer. He moved slowly and carefully, making sure to make his intended movements obvious so that she could see them. That way she wouldn't tense up or panic when he did touch her.

The wound she gave herself, when she stabbed herself, was the one that hurt the most. The actual wound itself was gone, but Kairi still felt pain from time to time. It was Sally who theorized that it was a mental problem and not a physical one. Aside from that, the only lasting physical effect was that she had to take some medication, but they had been assured that the infection would be cleared up before she was even finished the medication. She only had a few days worth left to take.

They had stayed in Christmas town for nearly a month before Kairi was finally brave enough to leave their peaceful, secure sanctuary. She wasn't brave enough to stray too far from Sora though.

Sora hated seeing her eyes so fearful. Whenever he saw her eyes well with tears, which happened frequently and at random, he felt guilt pass through him. He should have been able to get to her on time. He should have been able to protect her.

She had nightmares frequently. It happened so much and she was getting such little sleep that Sora and Mrs. Claus had been forced to put her into enchanted sleeps each night. They did it with her permission though, not wanting to force her into anything. Knowing that Sora would be at her side at all times while she was asleep, and that she wouldn't have nightmares, she agreed. Eventually though, over the month, she slowly wanted to be put into less and less enchanted sleeps.

It was only the day after they left Christmas Town that Kairi finally opened up and talked to him about what had happened to her. Sora knew that it was a big step, he had been told that it would be, so he made sure to listen carefully and just let her talk.

He had to admit, while hearing everything from her point of view made rage, anger, guilt, horror and so many more feelings pass through him, he was glad, if only for her sake, that she told him what had happened. While she had horrible nightmares that night, it was like something had relit a very small flame in her. It was just a spark of what used to be there, but Sora would take it.

What came back was her stubbornness. She made it clear that she didn't want to tell any of their other friends, especially Riku. While he couldn't really agree to this, and while he knew Riku would find out eventually, he agreed to it. He knew for a fact that Kairi would not be comfortable around their old friend though, no matter what she said.

He was honestly surprised that she was still so open with him. True, at times he wanted to complain about her being so clingy, because he was just human after all, but he always managed to push those feelings aside. She wanted him to be with her at all times, so he would be there. She wanted to sleep in his arms, it was the only place where she got a decent sleep. She wanted to hold his hand, and on occasion, she wanted to give him a hug and a kiss.

Sometimes he felt as if she was doing it for him, but he knew that she was doing it for herself more than anything. He was her support, her strength, and he would take her being too clingy over being afraid of him any day.

She cringed away visible from any male that came close to them, the only other exception to this fact (aside from Sora) was Roxas. While Kairi was a little more wary with him, she didn't run away, cringe, scream of cry if he touched her. They had discovered this once when Sora and Roxas had switched places.

Namine tended to appear more often now. If there was ever a male enemy that they needed to fight, she would switch with Kairi and fight for her. It led them all to realize that Namine was instinctively very good with magic. Kairi, for her part, was relieved that she didn't have to face any male enemies. Luckily though, they hadn't run into any of the people that were tormenting them.

Sora was wary about that fact. Crysita in particular, he knew, was cruel. Then again, she had watched him murder someone that was supposed to be on the same side as her. She probably figured that Sora and Kairi were both broken enough. For now.

His eyes turned to Kairi again after looking away. She had never said it, but he knew she was ashamed of what had happened to her. She did admit, after he prodded her gently about it, that she felt pathetic. She felt alone and isolated. She felt weak. Sora had tried to argue with her, but it was no use. Instead, he did something else. He tried to distract her by helping her train with her Keyblade. At first she was wary, because even with her Keyblade Jorix had still been able to subdue her. Still, eventually she started training more and more. Almost to the point where she was so exhausted that she just passed out at night. He thought she was working herself a little too much, but he was also sure that out of the two of them, he was more likely to get hit by an attach now than she was. She worked on her speed viciously, wanting to be fast enough to get herself out of any situation like that again.

"I wish we had stayed in Christmas Town," she mumbled as she leaned against him, startling him out of his musings.

"Why are we here?"

They had left Christmas Town a while ago, and were jumping from world to world hoping to be able to help others. Sora wasn't even sure what the date was anymore. Every day just seemed to blur into the next, just as every world they went to was filled with destruction from either Maleficent of Crysita's group.

They were in the world where the Beast and Belle lived, but it had been attacked a long time ago from the looks of it. Beast and Belle were both frozen in crystals, and it was an eerily beautiful sight in a twisted way. This wasn't the first world like this that they had gone to. The only comfort that they had was that they knew Riku was traveling with Donald, Goofy and Mickey. Well, they only knew for sure that Riku was with Donald because they had found his cellphone by one of Donald's feathers, but assuming Goofy and Mickey were with him wasn't such a long shot.

In theory, they should have gone back to Disney Castle long ago, but neither of them particularly wanted to. Both said they wanted to help more people but Sora knew that the reason he didn't want to go back was because he was ashamed for not protecting Kairi better. Likewise, Kairi was ashamed of letting it happen to her. Many times Sora had caught her calling herself used or a whore or something along those lines. Many times he had assured her that she was none of those things.

Sora knew that getting Kairi better was going to be a very long process. He was also already immensely proud of her already. He was willing to be patient for her though and give her all the time and support she needed. Still, he was only human, a teenage boy at that. He couldn't be perfect for her all of the time.

"I was hoping that someone would be here," Sora said sadly. "I was hoping that that we could help someone for once." He let go of her and let himself slump to the ground in the middle of the courtyard. He shook his head for a moment as he gently began hitting his hand against the stones on the ground. Each hit got more intense until there was blood seeping out of his knuckles and he was sure that he had heard some type of bone snap.

Kairi took a few steps away from him fearfully. She hadn't seen him this upset in a long time. He had been so strong around her, trying to help her get better, and it had honestly never occurred to her that seeing so many worlds devastated and their friends gone, on top of what had happened to her, was effecting him so badly.

She knelt down but kept away from him a bit. She hesitantly reached her hand out, putting it on his shoulder and saying, "Calm down."

"Calm down?" he repeated with a bitter laugh. "How am I supposed to calm down? Every-single-world-we-have-gone-to-has-already-been-attacked!" He punched the ground between every single word, his voice rising until he was yelling.

Kairi jerked away from him and stumbled back to the ground, her eyes flashing with fear. She felt herself starting to breathe heavily, and but just kept telling herself that Sora would never hurt her. He wouldn't turn his punches over to her.

"Stop it!" Roxas yelled at Sora as he appeared. He grabbed a hold of Sora's arm tightly with one hand, the other grasping his other shoulder and shaking him roughly. "Don't you dare yell at her! I know it sucks, we're getting our asses handed to us, but don't you dare take your anger out on her!"

Sora blinked at his Nobody, just staring at him. He wasn't the least bit surprised that Roxas could interact with him, it was something that both of their Nobodies had found that they could do recently. No, he was staring because he was wondering how he could be so stupid.

Slowly, Sora turned towards Kairi, who stared at him warily but did not flinch away. He held out his non-injured arm and said, "I'm sorry Kairi."

She hesitated for a moment before moving into his arms and hugging him. That was one thing that Sora had discovered over the past little while: if he let Kairi make most of the movements to be affectionate or close to him, than she was instantly comfortable with him. If he moved first, she would tense up, but she wouldn't jerk away like she would with anyone else.

Sora was taken out of his thoughts as Kairi gently took his bleeding hand into her own. He winced as she ran her fingers across his knuckles. She silently summoned Oathkeeper and set it over her hand, muttering, "Wateraga." He winced as the water poured over his hand while she gently wiped away the blood with her sweater. Once she was sure it was clean she cast cure on his hand.

"Thank you," he whispered to her while giving her a gentle squeeze. "What would I do without you?"

She smiled up at him and said, "Beat yourself up like a crazy person?"

Sora laughed a bit before moving a little bit closer to her and saying, "I really am sorry. I didn't mean to yell at you."

"It's okay," she replied, "you're stressed with everything. I understand. I'm not really helping."

"No, no," Sora said quickly while gently resting his hand against her cheek. She leaned into his touch a bit and he continued, "I would do anything for you. It may be hard at times, but don't ever think that you're a burden to me. Okay?"

She hummed a bit and nodded. Sora smiled and asked, "Can I kiss you?" He winced a bit, not meaning to be so forward. If he could be honest with himself, he really missed the days when he could just kiss her without worrying about her panicking. The selfish part of himself was disappointed that their relationship had been just starting to move into a place where she was really getting comfortable with him physically, and now thanks to what happened, they were back farther than where they had started. He was only a teenager after all, and he couldn't help but be disappointed that Kairi insisted on wearing sweaters and long pants now, not wanting to show much skin.

Kairi, for her part, wasn't completely clueless to his thoughts. The fact that he was being so sweet and understanding with her melted her heart and made her fall in love with him even more. She knew he was disappointed that she got nervous, that he couldn't just randomly kiss her for no reason at all. She missed those times herself, but whenever he got too close too fast she would back away. Kairi was determined to make herself more relaxed around him. If she couldn't make herself trust the boy she loved than she couldn't expect herself to become comfortable around anyone else.

Kairi put her hands on his cheeks and brought his face down to hers. She stopped barely a few centimeters away and whispered, "Never be embarrassed to ask." Then she leaned in and kissed him. There was a little more force behind the kiss than she had been using recently, but she wasn't afraid. His grip on her was so gentle that she couldn't help but feel completely safe and at peace at that moment. They broke away from each other and Kairi kissed him on the cheek before tucking her head in his shoulder, yawning against his neck.

"Where should we go?" Roxas asked. He had been visible the entire time, but he had simply ignored the other two, not wanting to interrupt them. Namine had appeared beside him at some point of time, but she too stayed silent.

"What do you think?" Sora asked the two of them while resting his head on top of Kairi's.

"Well," Namine said, "maybe we should head to Disney since we can target where we're going. We've been trying to help people, but to be honest, I think we're out of time now and we're still fighting blind."

"She's right," Roxas agreed. "We don't have a clue what their motives are, and we're not even sure we met all of them yet. Don't even get me started about Maleficent."

"We shouldn't be worried about her," Kairi said with a second yawn. "She's predictable. She probably just wants to spread darkness and gain access to Kingdom Hearts. It's the other ones. They're just-"

Sora ran his hand through her hair and said, "Twisted. That's what they are. Maybe you guys are right."

"Besides," Roxas added with a grin, "sleeping beauty there looks like she's about to pass out."

Kairi shot him a glare and was about to protest, but only ended up yawning again. The other three laughed as her cheeks burned.

Sora smiled warmly at her and said, "We can get you your own room with a comfortable bed."

Shaking her head, she hugged him tightly and said, "A bed would be nice. I don't...I've never been to Disney though..."

"I'll stay with you then," he replied quickly. It was an odd situation that they were in. Kairi couldn't stand being in a room alone, and Sora didn't like straying far because she always had nightmares and he always wanted to be with her when they happened. The problem was that Kairi's body would usually tense up at the thought of sleeping close to someone else, let alone sleeping beside someone in a bed.

Sora offered to sleep a bit away from her, on the floor in some cases, but she quickly rejected that. The solution that Sora came to was the best one they had: he would go and lay down first, and if he didn't fall asleep first he would pretend to be asleep for Kairi's benefit. It was the same thing in the morning. He always let her be the first to wake up, even going as far as letting her be the one to wake him up. She always felt more comfortable that way. It wasn't much, but he knew that it made her feel like she was in control of the situation.

That was one thing she had mentioned when she told him about what happened. She had said that one of the things lingering in her mind was the fact that the bastard had taken any ounce of control she had in the situation away. Knowing this, Sora let her take control in any situation she could, and she visibly appreciated it.

"So are we going to go?" Namine asked eagerly. Both she and Roxas had seemed more energetic and talkative lately. They had more energy to appear and wander around with their Others, and preferred doing that more times than not. They eventually came to the conclusion that constantly going through the darkness had been making them weaker, and now that they traveled through light they were recovering their lost energy and then some. They all were. Kairi even attributed that to her stronger magic.

"Might as well," Sora agreed and stood up quickly. Kairi let out a small scream of surprise and held onto him tightly. She wasn't nervous or scared this time; she just wasn't expecting him to stand up while holding her. He smiled at her and said, "I'll carry you."

"I'm not afraid to walk in the light though," she pointed out. She had always been scared and nervous when traveling through the darkness, but now that they walked through the light she always felt so comforted and warm. She liked it a lot more.

"I know, I just want to carry you," he admitted. "You are tired, anyway. Besides, if I'm holding you I have an excuse to try and use my Keyblades with my mind."

Kairi giggled and said, "Well then it looks like you'll have to carry me everywhere to practice."

"I can do that," he replied as he spun them around. She giggled a bit before resting her head on his shoulder.

"Lets go," Roxas said excitedly. He remembered Disney Castle from Sora's memories, but he was still eager to see it himself.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

Minnie's dark eyes held panic in it as she rushed people farther into the castle. The gummi ship docks were sealed off, and everyone was gathering in the Throne Room. She didn't know what to do because they weren't expecting any enemies to be able to get into Disney. It had never really occurred to her that something that wasn't completely dark could get into the world. Well, she knew that because Riku could get in, but she wasn't expecting something so evil to be able to get in.

The queen did the only thing that she knew she could do: try to protect as many as possible. Anyone in the near vicinity of the castle was brought in, and it was sealed off quickly. Now, should these dangerous enemies appear, they had a large number ready to fight back, but there was still a very good chance that they would fail.

"What's happening Aunt Daisy?" Minnie heard one of Donald's nephews ask her. Daisy, who was standing beside Minnie, turned and looked at the three ducklings. She wasn't quite sure how to answer that, so she just kept them close to her.

Suddenly, a bright spear of light appeared in the middle of the room. Most of the creatures in the room covered their eyes from the intense rays, but Minnie was very familiar with light magic and was used to such sights. There was a figure slowly taking shake inside the sphere, and as it got closer, Minnie realized that it was a human, but she couldn't see any of the features. It was only when they got closer that Minnie recognized the spiky hair and let out a gasp.

"Sora!" Minnie cried out with relief in her voice. She rushed towards the Keyblade Master and stopped a few feet short of him when she realized that Kairi was cradled in his arms. "Oh, Kairi! Is she alright?"

"I'm fine," Kairi said in a small voice as she motioned for Sora to set her down, "just tired." The way she tensed up and her eyes scanned the room suspiciously wasn't lost on Minnie, but she decided to let it go for now. The queen couldn't help but be concerned as she watched Kairi squeeze Sora's arm.

"Sora!" "Sora!" Chip and Dale rushed forward, talking animatedly and jumping in front of the two.

Sora couldn't keep up with what either one was saying so he held up a hand and said, "Hold up guys. What's wrong?"

"Someone's attacking Disney!" Chip explained with a bit of panic in his voice.

"Yeah, we told the king but he's not here yet," Dale added.

"It's those people that are controlling specific elements," Minnie explained. "From what I've been told they're two of the boys. Sarlio and Jorix maybe?"

Kairi looked like she as about to be physically ill when she heard the second name. Sora pulled her close to him and said, "It can't be Jorix. I got rid of him already. I think the other dude's name is Carver or something."

"Sora," Kairi whispered urgently while gripping his shirt so tightly that her knuckles turned snow white. He turned his attention to her and brought her as close to him as he possibly could, a dark expression on his face.

"They're just outside the castle!" he heard someone yell, and he had to do a double take because of how much this teenager looked like Goofy. He'd question it later.

Kairi was breathing heavily and she was starting to shake. Sora looked around before saying, "I'll go deal with them." They weren't Jorix, but a part of Sora, and a part of Roxas for that matter, wanted to take their anger out on someone else.

"No!" Kairi said shrilly, and Sora was instantly reminded of when he had first rescued her and brought her to Christmas Town. "Please don't!"

"Kairi," he said sternly, tilted her head so that she was looking at him, "I have to stop them from getting into the castle. If not to save these people, than to at least keep you safe. I have to. Look at all the children they'll probably take."

She looked around and sure enough, there were many frightened children staring at them. She remembered how scared she used to be for them, but all she had been thinking about what how afraid she was to be captured again. Looking back at Sora, she nodded her head and said, "Be careful." She leaned up without warning and kissed him quickly.

"I will be," he replied before turning and leaving the throne room. Kairi frowned as she watched him go, and sat on the ground with Minnie and Daisy on either side of her.

"Are you alright?" Minnie asked her with worry.

Kairi was about to say that she was fine, but the tears that welded up her in eyes told a different story. She put her face in her hands and said, "No."

**VVVVVVVVVV**

Sora went out into the courtyard of Disney Castle and hid himself behind the shrubs, waiting. He knew that they were coming, but he'd have to be patient. They had no clue he was there, and though they probably had an idea how angry he was (he had no doubt that Crysita told the story of him dismembering her former teammate before slowly ripping out his heart), they were probably a bit skeptical. After all, that was a terribly dark and evil thing for someone to do, and he had very little darkness in his heart.

Finally, he heard them approach. He looked around and saw that one was indeed the man whose arm he had removed, and Sora felt the rage bubble up in him. That person, Sarlio, if he remembered right, had hurt Kairi too. The other one hadn't done anything to them directly, but Sora was sure that he had done some pretty horrible things as well.

"This'll be easy," Sarlio said as they approached the castle. "They're a bunch of animals. They can't give us that much trouble."

"No," Sora spoke up as he came out of his hiding spot, "but I can."

Both of the young men seemed stunned for a moment, and then an extremely cautious look appeared on the Carverin one while Sarlio smirked darkly at him.

"You," Sarlio said, "took my arm. That's okay though. Heard Jorix took your girl's virginity. I suppose to her that counts as even. I can get another arm or replacement on, but you'll never be the first one to touch your girl anymore. Too bad he's not around anymore, I'd ask him if she was a good fuck or not."

Sora snarled darkly at him and said, "You know what happened to him. Don't think I won't do something like that to you."

"I'd like to see this darkness of yours," Sarlio taunted him.

"You heard what he did," Carverin said to his comrade quickly.

Sarlio snorted and said, "I highly doubt Mr. Light over here really ripped Jorix's balls off just because he banged his chick first." He turned his attention back to Sora. "Tell me, she pregnant? Or maybe she has some sort of disease? Wouldn't surprise me, Jorix slept around a lot. How does it feel having used baggage around?"

Sora glared at him and instead of just a single Keyblade, Oblivion appeared with the Kingdom Key in his hands. Sora held them up and said, "You're going to wish you never said that."

Sarlio just laughed until one of the Keyblades came flying at him. He manage to dodge it, but he wasn't expecting it to fly back from behind him. He moved again, but it sliced through a part of his already severed arm. It didn't return to Sora's hand, instead it was floating around him.

Carverin was the next one to move. A sharp shard of ice flew towards Sora, but he easily jumped over it and brought the Kingdom Key down on his head. A blast of icy cold wind met Sora, and he was thrown back, his skin starting to turn an alarming shade of blue already.

Sarlio lunged after Sora, bringing his wooden club down towards the brunet's head. Oblivion flew in front of him, blocking the hit. Carverin came from behind though, and was about to bury his weapon into Sora's spine, but he let out a yell of pain as a different Keyblade struck his hand. He yelled in pain and held it close to his chest while looking around.

Oathkeeper appeared in Kairi's hand again, and she held it out in front of her. Her hand was shaking a bit, but there was a determined look across her face.

Sarlio laughed and said, "Look here Car, the Princess wants to fight. First one to beat her gets to take her for a ride."

Kairi took a small step back, but she kept her Keyblade out in front of her. Sora took their distraction to his advantage and got off of the ground, allowing both of his Keyblades to hover in the air in front of him before each one went towards a different enemy.

As the two fought off the flying blades, Kairi dashed towards Sora. He was concentrating so hard to keep both Keyblades going at the same time that a sweat was already starting to build up on his brow. In Final Form they were easy to control, but he couldn't get into Final Form on his own. The others he could, but not that one. On his own he could he could already feel the energy draining from him.

Oathkeeper vanished from Kairi's hands and she rested them one on top of the other on Sora's chest. His eyes opened and he stared at her for a moment, his Keyblades faltering. She just smiled and closed her eyes, and that was when Sora knew what she was doing. She was pushing her own power into his body so that he could continue to use his Keyblades. It was like when he shared the powers of those who merged with him in a form, but she wasn't merging with him, just lending the power.

He couldn't feel the strain anymore, only the light that was traveling through him. Under that, he could feel Roxas and Namine concentrating their own separate powers into his as well, but what he found was that he was acutely aware of Kairi. Her hands were warm even against his clothes, and he could hear her breathing and her heartbeat as if it was his own. He felt her shift slightly, leaning up so that her lips were by his ear, and he heard her whisper, "I love you."

And he felt like he could do anything.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

"My god," Midori mumbled when she saw Disney. Half of it looked like it was a wood carving that someone had made, and the other half looked like ice sculptures. She had taken over flying from Mickey (by force) and she was the first one to see the damage that was done. "I've never seen them hit a world so hard before."

Riku stared at the scene with terrified amazement. Her statement was true, the closest they had come to seeing such widespread damage had been in the Dwarf Woodland and Deep Jungle.

"What's happening at the castle?" Doanld asked suddenly, pushing himself up in his seat so that he could see better. Everyone leaned forward in their seats and saw a pulsing light coming from the courtyard of Disney Castle. Outside of the light, there were two figures struggling with something.

"Gawrsh, what d'ya thinks making all that there light yer Majesty?" Goofy asked Mickey curiously.

"I don't know but—LOOK OUT!"

Midori, who had been, unfortunately, paying attention to the scene before her and not flying like she should have been, looked ahead of her. She had been leaning on the controls and they ended up getting too close to the frozen trees. She let out a scream and tried to correct herself, but it was too late. The gummi ship crashed through the icy trees, shattering them in the process and careening out of her control, quickly descending towards the castle.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

Sora's eyes snapped open again when he heard a loud crunching sound. His eyes quickly locked onto the rapidly descending gummi ship, and it didn't take a genius to figure out that it was out of control. Oblivion and the Kingdom Key vanished as he lost his concentration, and Kairi's eyes opened to stare at him with confusion. She looked around and let out a small scream.

Sora grabbed her and threw them out of the way of the speeding gummi ship. Sarlio managed to get out of the way completely, but Carverin was nicked by the wing and thrown against the castle wall, unconscious.

The gummi ship crashed into the wall of Disney Castle, destroying it. Luckily though, the ship itself was reinforced so that it wasn't completely destroyed, killing everyone inside.

Sarlio glanced over and saw a rather stunned Sora and Kairi distracted by the smoking ship, and he took their distraction to their advantage. A wooden root seemed to burst out of the ground, grabbing Kairi by the ankle and dragging her towards him. She let out a scream as she was dragged over to him. Once she was at his feet he grabbed her arm and yanked her up.

"Jorix was right, you are easy on the eyes. I don't usually have interest in a girl like you, but I wouldn't say no to using you for a bit. Don't take it personally though, it's just because you're a good looking whore."

Kairi felt panic welling up in her and she struggled desperately. She would have summoned her Keyblade, but she was panicking too much. She tried to twist away from him and screamed Sora's name desperately.

Sarlio barely had time to let go of her and get out of the way as the Ultima Blade was thrown at him. He had no clue when Sora changed his Keyblade, but he was sure he didn't want that one hitting him.

Kairi landed on the ground roughly and quickly scrambled away from Sarlio and into Sora's arms, her body shaking with fear. Yes, it had been nearly three months since Jorix had forced himself on her, but it wasn't something that she was about to forget or let go. Especially when someone else threatened to do it again.

Sora was glaring at him darkly, and Sarlio made his decision. He quickly grabbed a hold of the unconscious Carverin and vanished.

Once Sora was sure that they were gone he said, "It's okay, I've got you."

She nodded her head and squeezed him tighter. Neither of them noticed the gummi ship's door finally being pushed open, only for it to fall off it's hinges. They didn't notice Donald, Goofy, Mickey, Midori and finally Riku jump out of the door, and they certainly didn't notice their stunned expressions while staring at them.

Riku made his way silently but quickly towards his two friends that he hadn't seen in months, a huge smile on his face. Sora's eyes opened and he saw Riku. He didn't have the chance to tell Riku to keep back before Kairi opened her eyes and turned around a bit.

"You're okay!" he practically yelled, something very uncharacteristic of him. Riku quickly laid a hand on Sora's shoulder and wrapped his other arm around Kairi, not expecting the reaction he was about to get.

Kairi's mind was still filled with thoughts of fear and nervousness, and while somewhere in her mind she recognized that it was Riku in front of her, but that part wasn't functioning correctly. All she knew was that he put his arm around her, he pulled her away from Sora, and he was nearly twice her size. She couldn't get away from Jorix, what were the odds she could get away from this person?

Somehow, maybe through the connection in their hearts, Sora had known exactly what Kairi was about to do before she did it. He shoved Riku away literally a split second before Kairi could stab him with the Keyblade she summoned. Still, blinding by her fear and anger, she tried to hit Riku again, only to be blocked by Way to Dawn.

"Kairi! What the hell are you doing?" Riku demanded. Before Sora could tell him to stop, he pushed back. It wasn't a particularly hard or forceful push, but it was enough to cause her to fall back as he stood up.

She glanced up at the tall and imposing figure, his features now masked by the sun above of him. She saw the weapon in his hand move, not realizing that he was just moving a bit in general. Panic and fear swept through her and she let out a scream.

"What the—"

"Kairi!" Sora called out in panic, quickly kneeling down next to her. "Kairi it's okay!"

"Make him go away! Make him go! Please Sora! Please don't let him take me! Please!" She sobbed hysterically as Oathkeepr vanished and she gripped Sora so tightly that she ended up leaving marks on him.

"Go," Sora said, turning to Riku quickly.

"What? But—"

"Just go!" Sora yelled as he rocked a sobbing Kairi back and fourth.

They were all confused, but they all agreed that listening to Sora was probably for the best.

**Author's Note**

If anyone's wondering, there is no continuity of time between chapters. Some are the day after the one before, some are a week later, and some are months later. You'll just have to nod your head and go with it. I know, there is also no continuity between chapter lengths. Again, just go with it.

I know that a few people seemed surprised and horrified with what happened to Kairi in the previous chapter, for perfectly good reasons, but trust me when I say it took me a long time to decide to go with it. There are reasons for nearly everything I write. Trust me on that. I've planned everything out that each story needs to be read to understand the others. I'm also writing them a bit like the real series on purpose as well. The prequel will be coming later on and then after that we get something new.

Thank you for reading and/or reviewing! It means a lot.

I'm surprised no one's really noticed that we're almost up to the same amount of chapters that were in the total of Shadows of a Dream. I promised a lot of differences, and damn it, the 10 or so extra chapters as well as all of the changes shows that I deliver on my promises.

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	31. Journey To The Past

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Thirty – Journey To The Past_

King Mickey Mouse was a fighter. He was known as a strong, brave leader who was not to be tried, despite his small size. The King was friendly and easy going, but he still did his job with an unsurpassed seriousness. He always made time for his friends and family, and he always tried to look on the positive side of things.

However, King Mickey Mouse had never felt more broken in his life than he did at the moment. While the castle and its inhabitants had been spared, the rest of the world suffered greatly. He couldn't help but feel guilty for what had happened simply because he wasn't there to stop it. He kept telling himself that maybe if he had waited to run around to save the other worlds, assuming that his was safe, then he could have saved his own home. Maybe, if he had stayed home like most kings would have, instead of jumping to other worlds, he could have stopped them.

Still, he was chosen to guide the other Keyblade Bearers. Sora and Riku had come so far on their own, and both Kairi and Midori were proven to be formidable fighters, but they still needed some guidance. He knew he wasn't the best one for the job, but he was the only one who could help.

Mickey was, for all intent purposes, the only Keyblade Master left to help them. True, Yen Sid had once been able to use the powerful weapon but had long since put it aside, and Sora was a whole different type of Keyblade Master from him, but he was still the only one who had passed his Mark of Mastery exam. He knew he needed to help; there was no question about it.

He sat at his desk, a defeated look on his face. The last time that Mickey had felt this down about something was when he had agreed that it was a good idea to wipe away the existence of a friend.

Queen Minnie stood next to him and said, "You did what you could."

"No," he replied while shaking his head. "Doing all I could for this world would have involved staying here to protect it. Not running off to other ones. There's a reason there's order amongst the worlds. They're not to know of the other ones out there. I shouldn't. If I had given my all, I would have been the one fighting them off. The person who did was Sora."

Minnie slowly nodded and said, "I suppose but…well I felt like he was hesitating."

"Sora?" Mickey seemed honestly surprised about this revelation. He had seen the sheer amount of power that both Sora and Kairi were channeling, unable to separate one from the other at that point of time. Though it might have been because he was very distracted, he had a feeling that it was because of their connection. It didn't look like Sora was holding back. Kairi maybe, but not Sora.

"Something horrible happened to Kairi," Minnie said after a moment. "Just from how she reacted to Riku, I can guess what it was. Sora blames himself. He might not say it to her, but he does. There's something else though, something he's hiding."

There was a long pause between them. Not an awkward one but more thoughtful, both trying to figure out what to do next.

"We shouldn't confront Kairi directly," Mickey decided. "Let her come to us. Sora though, if there's something bothering him…I've seen what happens when people open their hearts to darkness. Such a strong imbalance…it just creates monsters."

Though Mickey was thought of as one of the symbols for light, he knew very well the consequences of not allowing some darkness in. There needed to be a balance. He knew the dangers of having something of pure light, just like there were dangers to having something of pure darkness. It could be manipulated easily, and when finally introduced to pure darkness, it could change drastically. He had learned that all too well. It was no surprise that if something bad happened to Kairi, who was pure light, that she would have reacted more negatively to it than even most other people might have.

"Queen Minnie!"

"King Mickey!"

They both looked around as Chip and Dale scampered into the room, both looking exhausted from the mad dash there.

"What's wrong?" Mickey asked, instantly worried.

"We were trying to fix the hinges and then there was just a woosh and then—"

"Something's happening to the Cornerstone!" Chip interrupted Dale, getting straight to the point.

Mickey felt his heart stop as panic flooded through him. Though he knew a 'balance' between dark and light was essential, he also knew that the light kept their world safe to a point. It probably would have fallen to the Heartless without the Cornerstone of Light. Something affecting it could easily be disastrous for the survivors of the attack.

"Show me," Mickey said, quickly following the chipmunks out of the room.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

Sora laid silently beside a sleeping Kairi, gently running his fingers through her dark red hair. She groaned in her sleep, her face scrunching up with discomfort. He leaned down and pressed his lips to the side of her head and whispered, "It's okay. I'm here."

Kairi's face became calm and her eyes fluttered open. Sora didn't have the chance to jump back and pretend to be asleep like he normally would. Surprisingly, she didn't tense up even though he was leaning close over her. She smiled sleepily at him and put her hand on his cheek, rubbing her thumb across his skin.

"You okay?" he asked her, easing down on his side so that he was eye level with her instead of hovering over her.

She turned to face him, smiled and said, "I could tell it was you before I opened my eyes. I think the light did something. For a while I felt like I wasn't able to feel you right, probably because all of the darkness we were traveling through. You know how that can hurt people's hearts. Now, I knew it was you before I was even awake."

Sora grinned broadly and said, "Does that mean I can start surprising you again?"

She giggled and kissed him deeply. Sora was about to pull back a few seconds later, knowing where her comfort zone had been for the last little while, but he was surprised when she followed his movement, keeping their lips locked together as she moved on top of him. She broke away, breathing heavily and saying, "I refuse to be scared around you anymore. I trust you completely Sora."

"That's good," he mumbled as he stared up at her with happy, lazy eyes.

After a few moments of silence, Sora just enjoying her being with him, a frown appeared on her face. He automatically thought he did something wrong and went to move from underneath her, but she refused to have any of that. She put her hands on his face to hold him there and said, "Why won't you kiss me? I know you want to, but I always have to start it."

"I just—"

"Kiss me," she interrupted him with a firm voice. It wasn't like the soft, beaten voice that she had used when she requested the same thing in Christmas town, but was a voice that told Sora that if he didn't listen he was in trouble. Kairi let out a happy hum as he leaned up and kissed her. His hands held her sides firmly but gently. She let him break away for only a moment to catch his breath before continuing.

Sora was surprised to be honest. It was true, it had almost been three months since the incident, but he didn't expect her to be alright with making out with him again for quite a while. That was when he realized that she wasn't. Her body was rather tense above him, but she was forcing herself to kiss him.

He backed away from her and held her shoulders, keeping her away from him. He didn't show it, but he felt disgust pass through him, directed at himself. He swore never to force her to do anything, and he never wanted her to think that she had to force herself to do anything. He smiled sadly at her and said, "You're not alright with this. It's okay. I'll wait forever for you."

Tears welded up in Kairi's eyes and she leaned her head on his shoulder. He kissed her cheek and rubbed her back softly. They laid in silence for a while, and Sora couldn't help but find it very comfortable.

After a few moments he said, "Are you ready to go say hi to Riku now?"

Sora felt her cheeks heat up against his neck and heard her let out a small groan. He knew that she was indefinitely embarrassed about how she had reacted, but he also knew that she didn't regret it. She hadn't actually realized that it was Riku at the time, and her flight or fight response was now highly aimed at fight.

She had told him about how she had tried to run. She had tried to get away, but that hadn't worked. So now, instead of trying to flee, Kairi wanted to fight. She wasn't going to run, because in her mind, running did nothing.

"He can help, you know," Sora said to her suddenly. At her questioning look, he added, "You've only really been around me and not other guys. Riku, he's big and a little intimidating to look at, but you know he would never once hurt you. If you're around him, I think it will help you a lot."

"Maybe," she agreed with a frown, "as long as he doesn't give into the darkness again. You know just as well as I do that it could happen Sora, don't deny it."

He tensed up a bit at her words. She was frightened about Riku turning to the darkness again. Sora had to admit that he felt guilt rising in him at her words. He had given into the darkness too. It had been so odd at the time, like he was completely there and conscious but something else was willing him to move. He couldn't tell her about it. He knew for a fact that he was all she had and she couldn't afford to distrust him too.

"Don't worry about Riku," Sora settled on telling her. "Whatever happens, I'll be there."

She nodded her head and asked, "Did he—did he ask you about it?"

"Yeah," he answered her honestly. "He was a little stunned at the time about what happened, but he'll figure it out. I know you didn't want to tell anyone else Iri, but this isn't something you can hide. Some people, I read this when we were in that world with actual internet and everything, can seem to get over it easily while others—for others it can take a long time."

"I don't want it to take a long time," she said with a pout.

"You'll get better. You have me, you have Riku, you have Roxas and you have Naminé. Then there's Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Minnie, Daisy and so many more people. We're all here for you, I promise."

Kairi seemed to think about this for a moment before nodding and asking, "Carry me?"

Sora, having rolled them onto their sides earlier, sat up as he laughed happily. He moved to the edge of the bed and said, "How about a piggy-back ride?"

Kairi giggled and moved so that she was holding onto his neck and her legs were on either side of his. She let out a small scream mixed with a laugh as his hands grabbed under her thighs and he stood up.

"Aren't I heavy?" she asked as she loosely wrapped her one arm around his neck, leaning her chin on the top of his head and using her other hand to play with his spiky hair. She loved his hair, and it always amused her so much how it stayed spiky despite not having any gel or anything in it. Not even water could hold it down for long.

Sora snorted her question, aware that she was playing with his hair but not aware that she was practically analyzing it, and said, "Of course you are. I think you have huge competition with that piece of paper though. It might outweigh you soon." He laughed as she jabbed one of her feet into his side. "Hey now, don't kick the person carrying you. I may just drop you."

"No you won't," she said confidently. They both knew that her statement was completely true.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

Midori leaned against the window in one of the many lounges within Disney Castle. She was sitting on the edge, staring at the broken world outside with sad eyes. She turned around and glanced at Riku, who was off in his own world while stretched out over the couch. He was staring into space, but at the same time, his eyes were thoughtful and calculating. She jumped up and moved over to him, leaning over the back of the couch so that he was looking directly at her.

"You okay Silver?"

He blinked and his eyes focused on her. He let out a sigh and said, "Everything's just...wrong."

"Wrong?" she repeated slowly. "Your friends are here, right? We've been looking for them for months."

"That's just it," he said while sitting up. "Sora and Kairi are here, and I'm glad, but they're just..."

"Different?" Midori suggested while jumping over the back of the couch and leaning her back on the opposite end from him.

"That's an understatement. Something bad happened, something horrible bad. I don't—I'd rather think that they just had a series of horrible luck, but I know that can't be true. I don't know exactly, but by how Kairi reacted and how Sora was so protective of her—"

"What do you think it means?" Midori encouraged him after a moment of silence.

"I think—I really hope that I'm reading into this wrong—but I think that someone…someone forced himself on her," he spat out the last bit as if the very words themselves had offended him.

Midori let out a hiss of anger, which slightly surprised Riku since she didn't particularly know Sora or Kairi. She knew of them, but she had never met them. As if sensing his surprise, she said, "You know my world is a matriarchal one and how everything is done to extremes, making us extreme feminists to almost a fault. Rape is considered to be one of the worst crimes that could be committed in our world. It's a higher offense than murdering a man or anything involving males."

"I just don't understand," Riku blurted out, unable to stand the thick silence that befell them after her statement. "How could Sora let that happen to her? He said that he'd always protect her."

"And I'm sure he's telling himself that too," Midori said with a nod. "We don't know what happened though. You can just barge in and have a go at Sora. I'm not saying that for him at all, rather I'm saying it for Kairi." At his questioning glance, Midori explained her thoughts a little farther. "If she sees you questioning Sora, then she might start to doubt him too. He's the _only_ one she fully trusts. Even I can see that. If you take that away, she has nothing. Don't think that she's going to trust you like she used to now that you know. In fact, expect her to be embarrassed and awkward. Besides, you'd probably really mess Sora up if you went at him."

"What?"

She rolled her eyes and asked, "Must I explain everything about _your_ friends? It's obvious that something happened with him too. Letting something so horrible happen to her would only add to his overly protective behavior. I think he did something that he's not exactly proud of to save her. It's just…just the way his aura was reacting to certain things you asked when he spoke to you briefly earlier."

"You think that he might have let his heart open to the darkness to save her?" Riku said, and though it was a question, he also meant it as more of a statement.

"I'm not accusing anyone of anything," she defended herself. "I'm just saying there's more going on then we know, so don't say anything too stupid."

He was about to reply to her but looked at the door when he heard footsteps coming down the hall. This was not something he wanted anyone else hearing, because then it could easily spread around the castle and he certainly didn't want to start rumors about anyone else. He sat up a bit straighter when he saw that it was Sora and Kairi, actually it was Sora with Kairi on his back, but that was just details.

"Riku," Sora said with a smile as they walked in the room. He set the girl on the ground and moved his arm so that it was around her waist and he was beside her instead of having her hide behind him. Kairi turned around so that her back was facing them and closed the door, but she didn't turn back around. Sora glanced at her before sighing and saying, "I'm really sorry Riku."

"For what?" he asked, sounding slightly startled as he stood up. He started to walk forward but he saw how Kairi's body instantly tensed up and he stopped.

"Well, I was pretty rude to you yesterday when I told you to go away," Sora pointed out with a laugh as he took a few steps towards his friend, letting go of Kairi for a moment. "Seriously though, it's really good to see you again. We were both worried about what happened to you guys. Where's everyone else who got off the islands?"

Riku was glad that there was no big sappy moment like the last time that Sora had met him again. The brunet admitted later on that the with the combined stress of fighting, his overwhelming joy of knowing that Kairi was alright, and the sheer relief that Riku was okay as well, caused him to snap and just start crying. It had been too much for him. That didn't mean that Kairi and Riku would ever let it go. Kairi often teasing him about liking Riku more than her, to which he could only reply with an absolutely mortified silence. No, instead it was just like they had been apart for a few days and now it was back to business.

"They're all in Radiant Garden," Riku explained, "training, the last I heard. It was a huge relief to all of us when Olette appeared and said that you two were alright." His eyes flickered to Kairi and he added, "You are alright, right?"

Kairi made an odd sound before saying, "I didn't attack you for nothing Riku." Her voice was bitter, which honestly startled him. Kairi was always relatively calm, and though she came off as sarcastic with him and Sora a lot, this was more than that.

Sora sighed and hugged her tightly, allowing her to press her forehead to his shoulder, her back still facing Riku and Midori.

There was an awkward silence, no one exactly quite sure what to say.

Sora cleared his throat a bit and said, "So, you're a Keyblade Bearer too?" He wasn't too sure how to address the situation at hand, so he decided to skip over it for now. He knew that they would all need to talk about their issues, but he wasn't going to force Kairi to talk about anything she didn't want to. He wasn't going to force her to do anything again.

Kairi turned just a bit to glance at Midori curiously. The older girl nodded her head and said, "Yeah. My name's Midori Naito. Silver here has told me a lot about you."

"Silver?" Kairi asked curiously.

Midori shrugged and said, "Well add to the fact that he has old man hair, he was also pretty cold when I first met him. So the metal name was appropriate."

"Whatever Tree-Head," Riku mumbled with a glare. Midori just shook her head and rolled her eyes, causing Kairi to giggle a bit.

Seeing her smile, Sora quickly jumped on the opportunity and asked, "Don't you have something you want to tell Riku?" He knew he sounded like a parent who was asking a child to apologize to someone they had been rude to, but he didn't care all that much. Sora knew that for them all to work as an effective team, they couldn't leave huge issues in the dark. Not ones like this.

Riku glanced at Kairi curiously, hearing her mumble something but he couldn't hear what. Sora smiled a bit and turned her around and giving her a small push towards Riku. This was really the first time he had saw her face, and he could clearly see both nervousness and embarrassment crossing her face. Then his eyes spotted the scar running beside Kairi's eyebrow and down her cheek, and he couldn't help but stare at it. It was very visible against her skin, so he had no doubt that it had been a bad wound.

Kairi sighed a bit and said, "I'm sorry for yesterday. I just—they were both there and they wouldn't stop taunting me then you were there and you're just so tall and big and I just panicked because I didn't know it was you. I didn't mean to attack you. I'm sorry."

"Well," Riku said gently, "I guess I can forgive you, but only if you give your big brother a hug. Yes, (he caught her curious stare) I've upgraded myself to your overprotective older brother. Deal with it."

Kairi giggled and hugged him, but he could feel her body tense up a bit when he hugged her back. It wasn't lost of him how she retreated to Sora rather quickly. Still, from the rather proud look on Sora's face, Riku knew that there must have been some improvement in her attitude.

Midori watched the exchange and asked, "I know I'm definitely pushing it by asking, but are you sure you're okay Kairi? I mean, I know I don't really know you but—" She stopped mid sentence, not quite sure where she was going.

Sora rested an arm around Kairi's shoulders and said, "We ran into some trouble. Okay, a lot of trouble. I took care of it though."

"Took care of it?" Riku repeated slowly. He knew that he would have to ask Sora about it later, not in front of Kairi. He could hear the undertones of Sora's voice, not just the rage and anger about the whole situation, but also the shame and guilt that was there. He hadn't been his friend since they were very young for nothing. He knew that Sora had done something he regretted, in a sense.

Sora snorted slightly and said, "Lets just say I took care of Jorix." Kairi moved uncomfortably when the name was mentioned.

"So that only leaves Crysita, Sarlio, Lilanti and Carverin," Midori said thoughtfully, not bothering to ask for details. "Although Sarlio hasn't been doing a lot since he somehow lost his arm."

"Oh, I did that too," Sora admitted sheepishly. This time Riku couldn't hear the guilt or contempt in his voice, so he knew that it must have just happened in the course of a battle. "We met him, Crystia and the bastard, but yesterday was the first time I ever saw Carverin, and neither of us have actually run into this Lilanti one. We weren't even sure how many of them there were."

"Maleficent is up to something too," Kairi added, and Riku hated the fact that her voice seemed so soft and fearful. "We haven't run into her yet, but we have run into the Heartless she's controlling, and we got confirmation from the people of different worlds, like the Shadow Man, that she was the one who gave him powers over the Heartless."

"Shadow Man?" Riku asked, feeling a strong pull of resentment towards Maleficent. Why couldn't the old hag just die?

"Oh, he was in a world called Mystic Bayou. I really wish that I knew who came up with the names for most of these places," Sora said, and Riku caught how the second sentence didn't sound like it came from Sora, though it had. The voice had been slightly different.

"What's been happening with you guys?" Sora asked them, trying to change the conversation slightly.

The four sat down and discussed their different journeys, all a little stunned at how many times they had come close to meeting each other. After a little while of talking, Midori seemed to grow on Kairi a bit, and while Sora was polite, he was also a little more reserved with her. He had seen her somewhere before, but for the life of him he couldn't remember where. He knew that Kairi would definitely appreciate the company of another female though.

Sora slumped down on one of the couches with a sigh. He looked up at the ceiling and said, "So, we're losing. Badly. I don't even know what we're losing; I just know that we are. We don't know what they want, Maleficent is kind of just lurking for some reason instead of being in your face like before, and most of the worlds with our friends in it have been hit. If not all of them."

Kairi sat beside his lying form, leaning back a bit so that her back was leaning on his stomach. She took one of his hands into her own and squeezed it tightly, but she didn't say a word.

"Midori," Riku said while looking at the young woman he was addressing, "are you sure that there isn't anything else you know about these guys? Their plans?"

She shrugged and said, "All I know is that they said they needed Sora, and to an extent, Kairi as well. I think they wanted to use her to keep Sora in line though."

Neither of them seemed surprised by this revelation. They had both accepted that these people wanted them for some reason. A frown made it's way onto Sora's face before he said, "They want us, but it was Maleficent attacked the islands with the Heartless to get us."

"They could be working towards the same thing," Riku stated thoughtfully. "Just in different ways."

"And we don't know what it is," Sora added. His defeated voice wasn't lost on any of them. "I can tell you that they have no love for each other."

Kairi shifted so that instead of sitting beside him, she was lying along side him on the large, very comfortable couch. She faced Riku and Midori, but she stayed close to Sora, her back against his chest. He smiled at her, understanding that she was trying to comfort him with by just being there. She knew him too well, he decided, because it was working.

"Don't start doubting now," Midori said to him. "I know it seems like a lot to ask, but you of all people can't doubt that we'll win. You're the Keyblade Master, the one destined to open the Door to Light. You've done it before, according to Riku."

Sora looked doubtful until another voice said, "You've been sort of doing it recently too." Riku and Midori both looked up with surprise at Roxas, who appeared out of nowhere and was sitting in front of the couch.

The blond glanced up at his Other as Naminé appeared at his side and added, "We can win."

"I don't kn—OW! Naminé!" Kairi giggled as Sora glared at Naminé, who had pinched his leg with her rather sharp nails.

"I'll do it again," she threatened him.

"Wait, she just touched you, and you felt it?" Riku asked with confusion. "Since when?"

"Dunno," Sora answered honestly. "Maybe it started way back in Twilight Town when we switched."

Roxas shrugged and said, "Maybe."

There was a sudden knock on the door, and both Roxas and Naminé vanished. A moment later, Mickey came into the room and said, "You've all got to come and see this."

**VVVVVVVVVV**

They had followed the King, who seemed both excited and nervous about something. They had moved through the bright halls quickly and silently, moving into the massive throne room. Sora, though he had seen the room before, still wondered why a mouse would need such a massive room. He would just go with it though.

Minnie and Daisy were already down in the secret passage that was normally hidden by the throne. His friends had been slightly surprised to see it, but he knew exactly where they were going and why. The Cornerstone of Light was one of Disney's most precious treasures, guarded and protected almost as much as Disney's royal family was.

As they walked down the stairs, sure enough there was the Cornerstone in front of them, but what surprised Sora was just how brightly it was shining. It was like staring directly into a star.

Minnie, and Daisy were already down there, staring at the Cornerstone in awe. Riku winced from the bright light, feeling like shuddering from feeling so much. Midori was having a hard time looking at it as well, because she was the perfect blend of darkness and light, and there was just too much light for her. Sora and Kairi, while wincing from the physical light, felt very comforted by it.

"I've never seen the Cornerstone glow so brightly before," Sora said in awe.

"Neither have we," Mickey admitted while he walked towards it. "This happened just after the world was attacked. No one knows why. Donald and Goofy have gone to get Merlin to look at it, and we're thinking of going to get Master Yen Sid as well."

Sora took a few steps towards the glowing sphere, and Roxas appeared beside him, but no one could see him through the intense light.

"What do you make of it?" Roxas asked while putting his hands behind his head. He waited a moment for Sora to answer, but when he didn't receive a reply he looked around in confusion. Sora was staring blankly at the cornerstone, not blinking and his eyes not moving.

"Sora?" Roxas said while waving his hand in front of his Other's face. "Earth to me! The universe is calling! They want their idiot back!" He still got no answer.

"Sora?" Kairi called out, sensing something was wrong. "Maybe you should get away from the light a bit."

Sora didn't move though. She went to take a step forward but let out a scream as a blast of light seemed to explode from the Cornerstone. Everyone closed their eyes to shield them from the intense light, and when it died down it was Daisy who was the first to look.

"Where'd he go?" she asked with a stunned voice. This caused everyone else to look up with alarm.

Kairi felt panic welling up in her body, but then her eyes caught sight of a paler than normal Roxas standing beside the Cornerstone, looking rather stunned. She moved towards him and asked, "Where is he?" To everyone else, it looked like she was talking to thin air, which was especially odd because Riku and Midori had been able to see Roxas and Naminé earlier.

"If I had to guess?" Roxas replied, his voice quieter than before. "I'd say he was in the Cornerstone."

**VVVVVVVVVV**

"Where am I?"

Sora stood in the middle of a run-down palace, eying the place oddly. It was made of marble and stone, and he had the strongest impression that he had seen this place before.

"You're just like me, Sora."

He whipped around, looking for the source of the voice, but it seemed to echo from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. It sounded so familiar, almost like he was listening to himself, but at the same time it was different. It was deeper, and much more menacing.

"Who's there?" he called out when the voice didn't speak again.

"A child with a heart of almost pure light," the voice said, sounding almost bored as if it was reading from a particularly long and dryly detailed text. "Not quite up to Princess of Heart standard, but not far. Darkness comes in different quantities in people's hearts, usually outweighed by light, which is considered a perfectly normal balance to most. Those who let darkness take over more tend to be consumed by it, and those who are perfect balanced tend to be very dangerous, sometimes more so than someone with pure darkness in them. Nice isn't it? I knew a few people with light almost as strong as yours. They weren't strong enough though. The closer to get to the light, the greater your shadow becomes. You only have a bit of darkness, but it's powerful. Just like the darkness that resided in Ventus."

"Ventus," Sora said suddenly, perking up at the name. "I know that name."

"Of course you do, idiot," the voice practically spat back. "You're a lot like him. Just as stupid, idiotic and naive as him, but you're much more powerful. I can see why the Master wanted you to be his apprentice as a child."

"What are you talking about?" he asked, confusion evident in his voice. "Who are you?"

There was a pause, and just as Sora was about to call out again, he heard the sound of footsteps from behind him. He looked around, and he felt himself tense up as he saw a masked figure walking towards him. The suit he was wearing, it reminded Sora so much of the one Riku wore when he gave into the darkness. Sora summoned his Keyblade, staring at the other figure with a cautious look.

There was silence as they just stared at each other, but Sora relaxed a bit when he realized this figure wasn't going to attack him. There was something wrong with it though, something not quite right.

"You-you don't have any light in you," he said with surprise after a moment. "You're not a Heartless though. You're different."

"Good job dumbass," the masked boy snapped. "No, I'm not one of those useless Heartless. They're mindless, only doing what they're told when the most powerful figure orders them to, but aside from that they just attack at random. The Heartless, Ansem, you faced? He was just Xemnas' puppet. An attack dog."

"What are you then?"

"I'm better. A Heartless is the darkness in someone's heart made real, surrounding the heart and containing the light inside. I am the darkness completely extracted from another's heart and made real. I'm not cloaking any light. I'm not thoughtless. I am as real as the person I came from."

Sora tried to comprehend this before another realization came to him. This one caused him to tense up a little more once again. "You…it's your power I feel when Anti Form takes over, but—"

In a bored tone, the masked boy said, "Your forms are not individual beings. Using a form, you reach inside of you and take power that's locked within you to give you new fighting forms without needed to learn how to fight. Understand? Sometimes though, when you're reaching for the other power, I can push my own power in the way instead. I've found that while I can't take you over, I can definitely influence you a bit. You have so little darkness in you that when I introduce even a bit more than normal, you become a wild, untamed, Heartless-like creature. Still, you usually struggle with the power, trying to push it back to me."

"So when Jorix—"

"Since I have to monologue everything out to you…you came looking for the strongest power you could find in you. I felt your desperation, your fear, your anger, and I used that to lure you to my powers. You were much more receptive, not fighting against me, so I took that to my advantage. You gave me control this time, a lot more. Not as much as I had hoped but—"

Sora interrupted him as he understood exactly what that meant. "You put the thoughts in my head of murdering him like I did. I would have been fine just stabbing him with my Keyblade but you—"

"Wah wah I made you kill someone, get over it wimp. You never had it in you to do something like that. To kill, yes, but not to torture or kill so sadistically. I was the one who manipulated you into doing what you did. I didn't just put the thoughts in your head, I was actually able to make you move."

The sheer amused tone of voice that the masked boy gave off was very unsettling to Sora. He shook his head and asked, "Why would you do that?"

He shrugged and said, "I was bored. Being trapped in your heart sucks. Well, I'm trapped in a heart in your heart. Yeah, before you ask, cause I know you're pretty stupid and will ask, I'm not actually a part of your heart, I'm just hanging out here. I mean, I can get free a few times because of how cracked and messed up your heart is after you stabbed yourself for your rape-victim, but it's still boring."

"You—you were bored?" Sora said with disbelief. "You made me torture someone because you were fucking _bored_?"

"You really are slow, just like Ventus. The intent to kill was there, I just changed the way you planned on killing him. I'm pure darkness, I like to cause trouble for light when I'm bored. Not only did I get to kill someone, but I got to mess with your head. Seemed like a good deal at the time."

"Who are you?" Sora snarled at him.

The masked boy chuckled darkly as his mask started to melt away. As it did, Sora felt horror rise in him when he realized exactly what he was looking at.

He was looking at a darker version of himself. There were differences though. His hair was a black colour that seemed darker than any Sora had seen before, and his eyes were a vicious yellow like a Heartless.

"Yeah, shocking isn't it?" he taunted. "No, I'm not you, so don't have an aneurism or something I just look like you. Maybe you'll know why some day, but I'll just let it bother you for now."

Sora didn't know what to say. Suddenly, there was a flash of bright light and he swore that he heard Roxas' voice yell, "Go back to the depths of my heart Vanitas!" He couldn't see what was happening though, because he had to shield his eyes from the burning light.

This time, when he opened his eyes, he was standing in a different room, but in the same building.

"You have seen this place Sora," a soft, warm tone echoed around him, confirming his thoughts.

He quickly turned around and saw a figure walking towards him. He could tell from the silhouette that it was a woman this time, and the voice rang a bell at the back of his mind, but he couldn't quite place it. It was much more soothing than the dark figure's voice.

A moment later, the figure came into focus revealing a kind-looking, elderly woman who stood tall in an almost regal way, her white hair cut short and a rather flattering summer dress on. He had seen her somewhere before, he thought as he looked into her silver eyes, he was sure of it.

"Sora, it's been a long time," she said with a sad smile. "Too long. You've grown so much since I last saw you."

"Who are you?" he asked her curiously. "And where are we?" He was still very unsettled about what had happened moments before.

"Push the dark thoughts away for now, because you are safe here and he is gone for now. My name is Haruka Hikari," she answered. "We are in a place from the past that still exists today but in ruins. We are in the ruins of the castle of Twilight's Destiny."

"Hang on, Hikari? That's my last name! Are you related to my father somehow?"

"Yes and no. Hikari was not your father's name. He took your mothers name when they were married, not vice versa. I know it's a little strange to think of, but it was his decision," Haruka answered. "No, I am not biologically related to Raiden. He was my son-in-law. Ayame was my daughter."

A stunned look appeared on Sora's face and he slowly asked, "So that makes you my grandma?" He decided to push all thoughts of the masked boy and everything else to the back of his mind at this revelation, deciding to deal with it later.

She smiled warmly at him and said, "Yes, Sora. I lived with you and your mother until you were only two, and then my time in the world of the living had come to an end."

"Wait, am I dead then?" he wondered. If he was, the irony of the situation was not lost on him. He survived fighting darkness, vicious creatures, and the worst bad guys imaginable, only to die from a blast of light. He swore, if this was the case, he was going to come back as a ghost and write it on the FML website.

Haruka laughed at her grandson and said, "No. The light brought you here. First the light wanted to sooth you by showing you that you are not the monster you thought you were becoming. Then it brought you here. For you see, we're not really in the destroyed castle but rather a vision of it. I am here to explain some things to you. You've seen this place in your dreams, but you've seen it intact."

"Mom was here," he said after a moment. "She was holding me as a baby, and I was hurt badly."

"That's right," his grandmother answered. "This place was a once grand kingdom that was destroyed and split into several different worlds. Only two of those worlds held life, and the people of both worlds forgot about the other."

"Twilight's Destiny, huh?" Sora muttered. "Weird name. What are the worlds it became then? The ones with the people? Please, for the love of god tell me that there aren't sparkling vampires who stalk people and show all the signs of being an abusive boyfriend or werewolves that want to jump creepy babies. If so I might just have to unlock the world and let the Heartless take it out."

"I think you know already," Haruka said with a small smile, ignoring his rant since she actually didn't catch the reference he was referring to. "What you need to know are the worlds that don't have life. You see, when the world split apart, it became those two as well as five other, uninhabited worlds. There are portals, at the edge of each world, where if you look closely enough, you can see something shielded. It's the connection to the castle, blocked off. There is one fragment of Twilight's Destiny where the portal is not blocked off, but it is sealed. This is the world you need to find to get in to the castle itself. This is now what your enemies are looking for."

"Why though? What's so special about this world? This castle?" With his question, the scene around him changed and he was outside in a ruined world. His grandmother pointed up at the sky, and he followed her finger and gasped. There, hovering in the sky was Kingdom Hearts. It looked different though, because instead of a yellow hue it was glowed a more blueish colour.

"It can be seen from all shards of this world, if you have the power to summon it, but it generally rests over the castle. There is something locked away here that allows one to gain the power of Kingdom Hearts, but only for a special few. That is why all past attempts to claim Kingdom Hearts have been doomed to fail from the beginning. There are very few people that can harness its power."

"But they're trying to find this world anyway?" Sora asked. A determined look appeared on his face and he said, "Then we have to find it first."

His grandmother smiled and said, "I had a feeling you would say that." Everything around them changed again, but this time it looked like they were standing in a projected map of space. "There are five possible worlds it could be in. None of them are inhabited by people, but many of them have rather vicious creatures living there and harsh environments. Living Jungle, Mysterious Abyss, Crystal Shards, Burning Embers, and the last place is one where I doubt the gate is, as it would have been discovered before, but you need to know about it. The Keyblade Graveyard."

"Keyblade Graveyard?" Sora asked slowly.

She nodded and said, "The place where all Keyblades go after their chosen wielder has perished."

"Well that seems like the obvious choice," Sora said thoughtfully.

"What does your heart tell you?" Haruka asked before turning away from her grandson and staring at the planets hovering around them. Five lit up in a different colour from the rest of the planets, and Sora couldn't help but notice how scattered out they really were. "These are the places you need to go to try and find it. Remember, if they reach it first, they might get access to the one thing you don't want them to have"

Sora thought about this and said, "I know you mean unlimited power—"

"No," she interrupted, "not unlimited. Ultimate power.

"Well either way, the one thing I don't want them to have is Kairi, and they're never taking her again." The last part was said in a protective snarl, and suddenly he came to a realization. He was here (wherever here was), having just vanished from the castle, leaving Kairi alone so abruptly. He had no doubt that she would probably be at least mildly panicking.

"You must go now," his grandmother, Haruka Hikari, said. It was as if she knew exactly what he was thinking. "Good luck my grandson, Master of the Keyblade."

With those words, she vanished into the light before Sora's world went black.

**Author's Note**

Some of you probably notice one massive difference between this and the original, if you read it. In the original I had kind of a god-like figure called Metaphor for Destiny, which was just as it was called. Destiny twisted into a human shape to represent it. I wanted to be more subtle this time around so I figured that using figures from Sora's past would be better.

Now you all know one thing about my rewrite of Shadows of Beginnings. In that, Vanitas didn't exist because I wrote it before we knew anything about him. In this one, Vanitas does exist. That changes everything.

I know my explanations for Anti Form are confusing, but just go with it. I'm not going to lie, I really dislike how most assume that Anti Form is Sora's heartless. We've SEEN Sora's heartless. It's a pathetic, docile Shadow. Sora doesn't lose his heart every time he goes into Anti Form, so it can't be a Heartless, otherwise Roxas would have been wandering around at the end of KH2 on his own.

Final Form isn't it's own person, neither is Master, Wisdom or Valor, so why should Anti be it's own being? See my logic behind this. They're all just different fighting styles influenced by magic. Now you know, at least in my world, where the darkness behind anti is coming from, since I've been so vehement about Sora having little darkness in him.

Simply put: Sora wasn't REALLY the one controlling his actions when he killed Jorix. It was Vanitas.

Wow, longest chapter of life for me. Don't expect many others to be this freaking long. I think I said that last time but I seriously mean it this time.

Anyways, thank you to all those who reviewed and those who read this as well. For this chapter AND other ones. Including shadowwolf547, Shifuni, NRZWolf13, KaUiA, Trainalf, Shire Folk and Joahikim. You guys are all awesome!

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	32. Broken Strings

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Thirty-One – Broken Strings_

Riku watched the scene with alarmed green eyes, but he kept his cool and didn't show his worry. So what if his eyes betrayed his true emotions? You could barely see them behind his silver bangs anyway, as Midori always pointed out.

King Mickey was studying the Cornerstone, walking around it and inspecting each centimeter of it, trying to make some sense of what had happened, but so far his inspection proved useless.

Queen beside Kairi, who had slumped to her knees and was visibly upset by Sora's sudden disappearance, patting the young woman's shoulder and trying to comfort her. Midori knelt on Kairi's other side with her hand calmly on her shoulder. Every once and awhile, however, her eyes would meet Riku's and panic would consume them. She had no clue what to do with the girl.

Riku didn't have a clue what to do with Kairi either. He had not expected her to panic as much as she was. She wasn't crying or anything, just kneeling on the floor, her eyes glued to the Cornerstone, every once and a while letting out a deep breath as if she had to remind herself to breathe. He had a feeling that she a little less calm on the inside though.

When he thought about it, it suddenly made a bit of sense. The only other time she would have suddenly been without him was when she was hurt. Though he didn't know what actually happened, he knew that there was no way in hell Sora was anywhere near her when she was hurt. It was probably more of the fact that she felt like she was reliving that a bit rather than Sora just vanishing. He knew that she had to be extremely worried about Sora too.

Still, despite the fact that he knew why she was acting like she was, it still hurt a bit when he tried to go over to comfort her, but she winced and backed away.

Riku's vision turned towards the Cornerstone where, though he couldn't see them, he knew Roxas and Naminé were standing. He might not have been able to see them, but he could practically smell the light coming off of them. It was like Sora and Kairi were by the Cornerstone, but they actually weren't. That's how he knew they were there. If he could have seen them though, he would have seen that they were dangerously close to the Cornerstone, whispering about what had happened. Naminé was immensely confused about what was happening, and actually looked a little scared.

If Riku were able to see Roxas though, he would have been more than just confused. Roxas didn't seem worried about the disappearance of his Other in the least. In fact, he seemed rather calm to Naminé.

Mickey had told everyone else not to go near the Cornerstone, since Sora had vanished after touching it, but Roxas hadn't cared. It's not like Mickey could tell him off when he couldn't even see him. His hand was resting on the warm glass of the Cornerstone, but he didn't vanish like Sora had. Actually, to Naminé, he looked like he was becoming more opaque as he touched it. At first, Naminé was wondering if maybe it was just the way the light was passing through him, but she disproved this mental theory when she held up her own hand to look at it. She was visibly more translucent than her male counterpart was.

Roxas suddenly turned and stared at the glowing orb with the same expression Sora had before he disappeared. She reached out her hand to put it on his shoulder, but he reached up and took it in his own, pulling her away from the Cornerstone.

The light seemed to explode again, and Riku felt like his retinas were burning out of his head. He heard Kairi scream with surprise, and for a moment he thought he heard Naminé scream as well.

He slowly opened his eyes as he heard Kairi let out an odd sound that reminded him of a combination of a whimper and someone being strangled. He looked up just in time to see her lunge across the room.

"Sora!" she cried out as she came into contact with the boy who had just reappeared. She had tackled him to the floor before she started sobbing as her arms wrapped around his middle, burying her face into his neck.

Sora seemed immensely startled as he stared down at the girl sobbing on his chest. His confused look quickly changed to a worried one as he sat up, holding her on his lap and hugging her tightly. "It's okay baby, I'm here. No one's going to hurt you."

Riku couldn't help but smile a bit as he saw Sora comfort the girl with great success. He was still a little in denial about what had obviously happened to her, but he was thankful that at least she could rely on Sora. His friend glanced up at him as he cleared his throat and asked, "What the hell just happened?"

Sora stood up, pulling Kairi with him. She wasn't crying anymore, but she was holding onto him tightly. She glanced at Riku and Midori quickly before turning her head and hiding it in Sora's shoulder again, this time because she was embarrassed about how she reacted to the situation.

"Where were you?" Mickey asked. "You just vanished. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he answered before his eyes shifted over to where Roxas was still standing, invisible to everyone but him and Kairi. The two stared at each other for a moment before Roxas shot him a confused look and Sora just nodded his head.

Raising an eyebrow, Roxas said, "That's what happened? Well, I guess it makes sense. I kinda felt that too. Also wow, that's what they're after? That's bad."

"Obviously it's bad," he answered out loud, confusing everyone who couldn't see Roxas and Naminé (meaning only Kairi knew what was happening at the moment). "Really bad. If they get there first, we're all done for." He purposely disregarded the first part of Roxas' vague sentence. That was something he and his Nobody would talk about later in private.

"What about Maleficent though?" Roxas asked. "Is she after the same thing?"

Sora looked thoughtful for a second before saying, "Looks like we need to make a trip to find out."

"Mind telling us not schizo people what you're talking about?" Riku asked him dryly, knowing very well that he was talking to Roxas.

"We're going to pay a visit to the World That Never Was," Sora explained. "We're going to see what Maleficent is up to. I know what Crysita and the others are after, but I want to know if we have to worry about the witch too."

"Wait, how do you know what they're after? What just happened?" Midori asked, voicing the question that they all wanted to know. Sora stared at her oddly for a second, not quite sure why her voice sounded a little desperate, but he shrugged it off. According to Riku, she seemed to have a personal vendetta against their enemies, so she probably just wanted to know.

"Because, I was told," he replied simply with a shrug. He then seemed to realize something, looking around curiously, "You'd think Donald and Goofy would be back already. Merlin would have zapped them back the second they got there."

**VVVVVVV**

As it turned out, Donald and Goofy had run into a few Heartless ships on the way to Radiant Garden, and the end result was that the warp gummi was busted. Merlin had zapped them back, and took a look at the Cornerstone, saying that it was most likely reacting to something or because of something. They then told him what had happened to Sora, and Merlin simply said 'well there you go' with no other explanation. They didn't bother going to speak to Yen Sid.

Sora was impatient though. He wanted to get to Twilight Town to get back to the World That Never Was to see if the castle was still standing. If it wasn't, then there was no telling where Maleficent actually was. They had two choices: wait for a week until the warp gummi was fixed and then leave, or leave now and get there in a little under a week. The 'little under' did it for Sora, and he said that he was going. It didn't matter if he had to hotwire a gummi ship, he'd do it.

Riku tried to point out that Sora didn't know how to hotwire one, and Sora explained that he did too. It was a long story involving Goofy and Donald loosing the keys (Riku didn't even know that gummi ships ran on keys) when they were in Atlantica once. The ship had actually been underwater that time (it was Donald driving that time, as Sora had been asleep) and part of it started to leak so they were trying to cover the leaking parts, so that left Sora to try and hot wire the ship to fly them out of there. It had been a disaster and they never landed the gummi ship in a world again. The upside was that Sora now knew how to hotwire a gummi ship.

Kairi said that she was going with, no ifs, ands or buts. Riku also agreed to go, not wanting to lose sight of his friends again. Needless to say, Midori, Mickey, Donald and Goofy agreed to go. The only downside was that there was only one extra bedroom on the ship. Kairi had been the first to say that it wasn't a problem, and Riku, Donald, and Goofy had teased Sora mercilessly about sharing a bed with his girlfriend. Kairi had come to her boyfriend's defense by saying that at least Sora had a girlfriend for more than a week (this was aimed at Riku, not Donald or Goofy). Midori had found this absolutely hilarious.

They packed themselves into the gummi, and Sora took the time to observe the ship, which was much bigger than the ones that he had always used. After they had lifted off, Kairi had felt a little queasy so she went to lie down. She had only flown on a gummi ship once from Hallow Bastion to Traverse Town, and while it had been a fairly long trip (not as long as it could have been thanks to the warp gummi), it had been a while since she had been on one.

Sora laid back on one of the chairs within the lounge, stretching out and staring at the ceiling. He missed traveling on gummi ships, although traveling to corridors of light would have been much quicker and efficient. Suddenly, he cursed himself and wanted to bang his head on something. He had been so caught up in going to Twilight Town that it never even occurred to him to make a corridor there. It would have taken a little while to walk there, but it would have been faster. Then he realized that he probably could have made one to The World That Never Was, but he didn't know if it actually still existed.

"Not all that bright, are ya bro?" Roxas asked as he appeared, stretching out on the other half of the huge, sectional couch.

"Whatever," Sora replied. "You're the blond one. I blame you."

"Well," Roxas said thoughtfully, "you could always try to open one now. I'm not sure if it'd be a good idea on a ship that's moving so fast though. We've always been pretty still before walking into the corridors."

"We'll wait," Sora said after a moment. "Besides, it gives me a little more time to think things through."

The blond knew what his Other was thinking about and asked,

"Do you know who that was?"

"No," Sora answered the vague sentence. He knew that Roxas was referring to the masked boy who had spoken to him. "He said he wasn't me though, but he said he was inside a heart in my heart." Sora placed a hand over his chest. "I'm starting to think that we don't know anything, like there's something that's hidden just out of reach."

"Considering we've met a guy named Ventus who wears armour and looks exactly like me in your heart, I'm thinking that something is definitely off. I wouldn't even know who to ask though."

"Me neither," the brunet agreed with a shrug. He was used to running into situations without explanations or answers. Rarely ever did he actually get an explanation about what was going on aside from a very vague one from people who had a vague idea of what was going on. The most detailed explanation he had ever been given was from Yen Sid about the Nobodies. It wasn't like he had some sort of Keyblade Mentor or Master to turn to. "And I just can't shake the feeling that everything that we're going through is just the beginning. Then I wonder how it could get worse but I think it is. I feel like something's just setting everything up. That we're being played."

Roxas looked up at the ceiling and said, "Maybe we are. I mean, a whole bunch of Keyblade Bearers appearing out of nowhere? That alone is definitely weird. It was just, you alone the first time, so why now? Unless there's something else going on that we don't know about."

"There probably is," Sora agreed. They never really knew what was going on. He looked over at Roxas and said, "Speaking of new Keyblade Bearers, what do you think of Midori?"

"Well, I 'creeped' on her while ago," the blond admitted without any sort of shame about stalking another person. "She seems nice enough, she really does, but at the same time, I dunno. There's just something—"

"Oddly familiar about her?" Sora suggested. "I feel it too. I know I've seen her somewhere before, but I just can't place where. It's like I know her, but I don't. You don't suppose we met her at a time when Naminé was playing with our memories, do you?"

"No, Naminé put those back how they were," Roxas said after a moment of thought. "But you're right, there is something familiar about her. I'm just not sure whether it comes from me or you."

Sora nodded and was about to say something when the door flew open and Riku walked in. His green eyes glanced from Sora to Roxas and back curiously before asking, "Did I interrupt something?" He didn't bother trying to guess why he could suddenly see Roxas again whereas before he couldn't.

"Nah," Sora said, motioning towards the cushioned chair. "Roxas and I are just talking. Nothing big." It wasn't a lie, but at the same time it wasn't truth either. Sora knew that, whether he admitted it or not, Riku had a bit of a soft spot for Midori, and he probably wouldn't take to kindly to Sora and Roxas' suspicions about her.

"You know," the brunet said after a moment of silence, "maybe I should let Crysita and the others capture me."

"What?" Both Riku and Roxas yelled, looking rather shocked at the prospect.

"It's just that, I know they want these powers that are hidden in a place called Twilight's Destiny," Sora explained. "They also want me and Kairi. I heard Crysita say that Kairi was, primarily, just to control me, but I don't have a clue what they'd want me for."

"Maybe you're supposed to open some sort of door?" Riku asked thoughtfully. "You are the one who can open the Door to Light, after all."

"I don't think they're all that interested in the Door to Light," he replied dryly. "There's just something that I—I dunno."

"Well, that's too bad," his silver-haired friend said while folding his arms in front of him. "These people are sadistic, twisted and sick. Who knows what they'll do to you. We're not letting them take you."

Sora snorted and said, "I can take care of myself. I got rid of Jorix, didn't I?"

Riku suddenly looked hesitant, which was an odd thing to see because Riku was never really hesitant. He believed that people should be given the truth straight out. He looked from Sora, to Roxas and back before asking, "What happened?"

Sora knew that he promised Kairi not to actually tell Riku that she had been raped, but even Kairi knew that Riku (and everyone else) knew what had happened, they just didn't say anything. Sora didn't want to break his promise to her, but he felt it all come pouring out. He hadn't been able to talk to anyone about what had happened before, and if he could take a moment to be selfish, it was driving him insane.

"We used to use corridors of darkness," Sora explained and Riku nodded, knowing this fact already. "Well, we were traveling and Jorix appeared. He separated us but Kairi was going to fight back. I was pathetic and weak enough to let him break my leg and almost my arm. There was a boulder hovering over my head so Kairi put her Keyblade away. Then...he just took her. Roxas and I ended up on Destiny Islands, which is in ruins, and we were pulled into my mind. There was this guy there, he looked identical to Roxas but his name was Ventus, and he showed me how to use corridors of light instead. I have no clue what he was doing there, but I wasn't going to question it because he was helping. Then, Naminé managed to use the connection between Kairi and I to get into my heart. She told me that-" Tears started to well up in his eyes. "She told me that he was torturing her, that he was r-r-raping her!" Sora said the last part as a yell despite his stuttering and buried his face in his hands. "I—I got to her as fast as I could, and when I got there...he was on top of her and he was—he was—." Riku nodded his head, showing that he understood what Sora was trying to say. "She was just...lying there not moving and—I thought she was dead Riku. She wasn't moving. I thought she was dead."

Riku had no clue what to do. He felt rage passing through him, and if Sora hadn't taken care of Jorix already, he would have done it himself. At the same time, he felt horrified that something so terrible had happened to his friend, and he also felt really bad for Sora. He couldn't even image how terrified the brunet must have felt, but looking at Sora's reaction, Kairi's made a little more sense to him. He wasn't quite sure how to comfort his friend but he definitely wasn't going to poke fun at him for crying.

"I snapped," Sora continued, not giving Riku the chance to try and figure out how to comfort him. "I went completely mad. I wanted to kill him Riku. I dug for the strongest power I had, but something happened. Something interfered with it. It was stronger and darker than anything I've ever felt before. It was like I was being controlled but not really. I thought I was controlling Anti Form. I thought I was the one who tortured him. Then, when I went into the Cornerstone, there was this masked guy. He said that he influenced me because he was bored. Said he wasn't from my heart but another's. I let him control me though. I wanted Jorix to die so much. Please, don't tell Kairi. Don't tell her that I tortured someone."

"You just said it wasn't you," Riku said firmly. "Sora, you might not be able to see it but the rest of us can. You literally attach your heart to everyone you come across and make friends with. Maybe, somewhere along the line, you took in someone else's heart like you did Kairi's, and that was the result. We don't know what the side effects of taking a heart into a heart really are. I know you. You wouldn't have tortured someone. Beat the hell out of him and possibly getting rid of him, I can see, but deliberately torturing someone? No chance in hell."

"He's right, you know," Roxas pointed out after a moment of heavy silence. "Naminé would agree. She was there. It was so odd. It was like something was whispering to you, suggesting things. Neither of us knew what to make of it and neither of us could stop it."

Sora was silent until he looked up at them after a moment and said, "She was awake you know, through the entire thing. It was like she was in a coma with her eyes open. I took her back to Christmas Town. She stabbed herself. She panicked when she realized that there was a chance that she could have gotten pregnant. I was right there and let her stab herself twice. I didn't mean to let her. She had nightmares, she screamed and she cried. I couldn't save her. She had to take all this medication to clear out the infections that the man-whore had given her. I'm just thankful that she didn't get something deadly or non-curable. She's alright now though."

He had sat up by this time, pulling his legs up and resting his head against his knees. Roxas came over and sat on one side of him while Riku sat on the other. Neither said a thing until Riku said, "I would have done the same thing. Worse actually. I probably would have fallen to the darkness again. I mean that seriously."

Sora nodded and, though his voice was mumbled by the way he was sitting, Riku and Roxas could both hear as he said, "We had so much fun in Halloween Town and Christmas Town just before that. You know, we were getting really close. Like, not actually sleeping together, but different things. She was hurt so badly, physically, emotionally and mentally, so I've been doing everything I can to help her, to keep her feeling safe and comfortable. I can't lie though. The selfish, hormonal, teenage boy in me is really disappointed that she doesn't let me get that close anymore. I know I have to give her time, and I am going to, it's just frustrating. I'm never mad at her for it though. It just makes me hate that bastard even more. And I guess...I told her it was alright and not to worry about it, but I guess the selfish part of me is also disappointed that someone else took her—well—took her first. She didn't deserve it."

Riku put a hand on his friend's shoulder and said, "You're just human, and you're doing the right thing. She might never be completely comfortable with strange guys again, but she's already comfortable around you again. She trusts you with her heart, and that's saying something. I noticed how she's actually being pretty good around me, so that's a good sign. It's just...the memories I guess. I don't really know. You just gotta keep doing what you're doing. It seems to be working just fine. I'll help in any way that I can."

Sora nodded his head again before looking up, and odd look on his features. "Crysita watched as I killed him, you know. She actually stopped him from leaving and let Kairi out of the stone that was holding her down. She didn't seem all that impressed. She smiled as I killed him. We really have to watch out for her."

"If she's willing to let that happen to someone on her team," Roxas added, "what's she willing to do to those of us she doesn't need?"

It was a question that nobody wanted to answer, but they all had a feeling it was a question that they were going to get an answer for sooner rather than later.

VVVVVVVVVV

Midori was curious about Roxas and Naminé. She had seen them briefly earlier, but in the Cornerstone room, though they had been there, neither of them had been visible. She wondered if they could actually control when they were seen or when they weren't. From what she had seen, if only briefly, was that they seemed to be able to actually interact with Sora and Kairi. They were just like phantoms to everyone else though. Nobodies didn't have hearts, and while they could act like they did, they really didn't feel a thing. They just remembered what they would have been feeling. Roxas and Naminé were different though, according to Riku, and Midori wondered if 'different' included being able to feel.

She had felt like something was following her around earlier, but every time she looked there was no one there. At first she thought she was just being paranoid or something, but as the feeling didn't go away, she came to the conclusion that either Roxas or Namine must have been following her around. It was certainly a good way to find things out about a person.

She would have to be careful. She didn't want anyone to find out her secret. It would ruin everything.

**VVVVVVV**

Mickey too was curious about Roxas and Naminé. It made sense that Sora and Kairi could see both their own Nobody and each other's, but what didn't make sense was that Riku and now Midori had seen them as well. He wondered why he, Donald and Goofy had never seen the Nobodies before, although Donald pointed out that they must have at least met Naminé before because of the note in Jiminy's Journal when they woke up in Twilight Town.

Riku was horrible at trying to describe the two of they, but from what Mickey knew, Roxas had dark blond hair and Naminé had light blonde hair. It was odd, because most Nobodies turned out looking exactly like their originals. It made sense, because a Nobody was just the body that was left behind when the heart fled and the Heartless was created. Mickey found it incredibly odd that Roxas and Naminé looked different from their Others. He supposed that it made sense in a way, because Roxas and Naminé had been created in very odd circumstances. Sora had regained his own body, and Kairi had never lost hers, so Roxas and Naminé had bodies of their own. Still, there must have been something inside of Sora affecting them. It was impossible to figure out though, because Sora had a very special heart. It was connected to so many people that Mickey could have spent years trying to ponder where the two Nobodies got their paler features. If he had to guess though he would have said—

No, there was no point thinking about that. His friend's heart hadn't just vanished. There was a difference between that and dying.

"Yer Majesty!" he heard Goofy call from the bridge. "Garwsh, I think we did something funny to them there communication systems."

Mickey sighed. He would have to try and ponder the mysteries of the two Nobodies later. For now he needed to make sure that his friends didn't break the gummi ship.

**VVVVVVV**

Sora saw Kairi lying on the bed, still and silent, feeling a thrill of horror passing through him. He looked closely, making sure that her chest was moving up and down, and once he saw it, he felt relief pass through him.. He moved across the room and sat on the bed, just watching her breathe. A moment later, she let out a tiny groan before her eyes fluttered open. She glanced up at him and smiled warmly, but her smile slowly turned into a frown of worry.

"What's wrong?" he asked automatically, gently looping his arm behind her back and helping her sit up.

"You're crying," Kairi said as she ran her hand over his cheek. He glanced at her hand as she pulled it away and saw that here was water on it. He hadn't realized that he had started crying again.

"I'm sorry," he muttered, feeling ashamed of himself for being so weak in front of her. "I'm letting you down by being a wimp."

"You're not a wimp," she replied. "You're allowed to cry around me."

"I feel like I'm letting you down when I do," he repeated.

Kairi moved and brought his face to her own, kissing him briefly before saying, "You have never ever let me down Sora. Not even when...it happened. I knew you would come for me, and you did, so you never let me down. I let myself down for not being powerful enough to save myself and you at the same time."

"Kai—" She cut him off again with a kiss, but this time it was a little deeper and lasted a little longer, but it was nothing compared to some kisses they had shared.

She backed away from him and smiled slightly as he yawned. She giggled a bit and asked, "What time is it?"

"Close to ten. You've been sleeping for two hours," he replied with a second yawn. He was emotionally exhausted more than anything, but he wasn't about to tell her that.

"I'm still tired too," she said. "So we might as well just go to sleep now." She slipped off of his lap, and he thought she was going to get the pajamas that she packed, but instead her hands grabbed the bottom of her tank-top.

"What are you doing?" Sora asked, staring at her with surprise as she pulled her tank-top that she usually wore under her sweater off and tossing it to the floor, leaving only her plain bra covering her upper body.

"I've told myself time and time again that I don't have to be afraid all the time," she explained as she started removing the pants. "That I don't have to be scared. I guess the only way to really force myself to believe it is almost to...prove it to myself. And yes, all I plan on doing is sleeping. Nothing else."

Sora shifted uncomfortably as she climbed into the bed with him, his cheeks flushing brightly. She stared at him expectantly, but he wasn't exactly sure what he was supposed to do.

"Sleep in your boxers," she instructed him after a moment. "I know it's going to be uncomfortable and difficult for you, but it's a step towards getting us back to where we were." Sora was still pretty stunned, so she pulled at the bottom of his shirt, tugging it over the top of his head. Both of them blushed wildly as she pulled at his pants, and Sora snapped out of his shocked haze. He moved out of the bed, blushing wildly as he took off his pants and settled beside her, facing away so that she wouldn't feel how red his face actually was. That, and he didn't want her to panic or anything because, given that she had practically stripped in front of him and tried to get his clothes off of him, it had definitely left a physical side effect.

Kairi wouldn't have that though. She grabbed his shoulder and forced him so that he was lying on his back. She snuggled up to his side, one arm going across his waist and one leg moving on top of his, blushing at what she felt. It was kind of the point though, she admitted to herself. As cruel as it was, part of her had really wanted Sora to be turned on, that way it was almost like she was proving to herself that, no matter how much he wanted to, he would never push her into doing something she wasn't ready for. She knew it might be like torture for him, and the fact that he respected her enough not to do anything was the best thing she could as for.

She felt Sora's tension leave him a bit as she nestled herself in against his body, sighing happily as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder. She shifted a bit, and he gazed down at her curiously.

Kairi giggled as she saw the bit of a blush that was still on his face and moved up some to give him a light kiss before resting her head on his chest and falling asleep.

Sora didn't fall asleep right away, unable to stop his mind from fantasizing and his body from reacting to it. He glanced down at Kairi, having a very good view of her cleavage from his point of view, before quickly looking up in the air. Something out there loved him enough to let him see such a sight, but must have also hated him enough to not let him touch it. It was like holding a bottle of fresh water in front of a person who was lost in the desert. He wasn't going to be able to fall asleep for a while, and after he did he would probably just have perverted dreams, that much he was sure of.

**VVVVVVV**

**Author's Note**

I'm sure you guys out there can sympathize with Sora. Cruel? Yes. Necessary? Kairi thought it was.

I am currently in the middle of having a spazz about the new HP Trailer. Seriously, it's so epic that it's epicness almost made me have an HPheartattack.

Also I beat BBS finally. Can I just saw that while little Riku and Kairi are cute, little Sora is more adorable than a puppy with a kitten, a baby duck and a baby chick all together. Seriously, I wish I could pluck him out of the game and just keep him for life.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed. Seriously you guys are awesome. NRZWolf13, Shire Folk, Trainalf, shadowwolf547, KaUiA, and Shifuni. I really appreciate it!

Hmmm I feel like I have something else to do right now but I can't think of what it is. Probably some sort of homework…oh well. I can just decorate my room instead cause I'm bored. At least I get to watch new Bones and Grey's Anatomy tonight…and new Supernatural tomorrow! Pretty much I just gave you all the tv shows I watched (plus House cause House is awesome).

Hope you like this chapter and it'd be great if you could drop a review.

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	33. Let Me Go

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Thirty-Two – Let Me Go_

"Sora."

He didn't want to wake up. He was having such a good dream for once. He was sure that he had seen this particular dream before, but then again, his mind had gone to many dirty places recently. It wasn't his fault that his girlfriend (hottest girl in the universe to him) decided to start sleeping in only her bra and underwear. In the same bed as him. Sure, he had seen her in bikinis before, including rather revealing ones not long before their home was destroyed, but seeing her in underwear was completely different. She was trying to kill him, he was sure. Why else would she start with the rather normal ones at the first of the week, only to switch to the lacy (and, in his mind, ridiculously sexy) ones by the end? His conscious mind would tell him that it was because she was trying to make herself more comfortable around him in less and less clothes (which another part of his anatomy said was a very good sign), but his unconscious mind just thought of her as a tease.

"Sora!"

His unconscious mind didn't want to wake up, because in his dreams, he could do all kinds of dirty, perverted things to his girlfriend, where in reality he had to be a bit gentler with her, a bit more cautious and understanding.

"Sora, if you don't wake up in a minute, you're going to regret it!"

He groaned a bit, watching as the dream Kairi vanished. Now he had no choice but to get up, because there was nothing left to do in his mind. He could have analyzed how he was sure that there was more to the dream than just Kairi and him fooling around in his bed at home after a party, something more serious, but he couldn't remember what it was anymore. Automatically, his mind wandered a bit and wondered if Naminé had strolled into his dreams and erased part of it. Did that mean that she had watched his dream to see what parts to remove? Before Sora's mind could wander from there (because, given that Naminé was identical to Kairi but with blonde hair, it would definitely wander), he felt something that caused him to instantly open his eyes.

Kairi, the real Kairi and not some perverted fantasy in his head, was hovering over him with an almost wicked smirk on her face. He thought it wasn't a dream at least. He suddenly became very aware that he was holding a part of his anatomy almost painfully tight, and that she was only wearing a towel. Yes, something was definitely out to get him.

"Finally, you're awake," she said, moving slightly so that her towel slipped down just a bit. It was barely a centimeter, but he damn well noticed it. She suddenly retreated completely, moving off the bed and heading towards the bathroom that was attached to their temporary room. "We'll be at Twilight Town by lunch time. Its seven now."

"Seven?" Sora groaned, frustrated with the time now as well. Sometimes he really wanted to strangle that girl. No, that wasn't right, sometimes he just wanted to throw her down and—

"Kill me now," he begged his mind. It was getting worse, there was no doubt about it. Ever since she had been raped, he had even managed to keep his fantasies at bay, but now that she seemed to suddenly become a little more comfortable with small sexual acts, it was like the dam in his mind had exploded, pouring everything out.

"Sora," Kairi said in a teasing voice, causing him to look at her with interest. She was well aware of how his eyes roamed over her, and while it made her a bit uncomfortable, she knew it was Sora and that she could trust him. She stared into his eyes for a moment, wondering if she could go through with what she had been thinking about since the night before. She took a deep breath, clearing her throat and said, "There's a spot on my back I can't quite reach. Want to come and help me?"

Sora's eyes widened humorously and he said, "You want me to get in the shower with you?"

She flushed a bit, knowing how small and cramped the bathrooms were (it was either that or having one or two large, shared bathrooms for the entire ship) and said, "If you want to. You do want to, right?"

That, he decided as he quickly got out of the bed, was the stupidest question she had ever asked.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

"There's Twilight Town," Riku muttered, and even though they weren't on the world, he could see the destruction.

"Depressing, isn't it?" Midori said, and Riku nodded his head. They were the only two in the room as Mickey, Donald and Goofy were getting ready to go down to the world. A moment later, a giggle sounded from the hallway, then Sora and Kairi appeared. Her brown eyes shot from one to the other, amusement passing through them as she said, "Someone got laid."

"What? No!" Sora cried out, blushing wildly, Kairi squirming a bit uncomfortably. It wasn't a lie; they hadn't even got close to what they had done in Christmas Town. Still, in Kairi's mind it was a step back towards where they were before. She was still too nervous and shy to do anything or to really let him do anything.

"Sure, sure," Midori replied with a skeptical voice. "Proclaim your innocence, it's not like—"

"Please, stop talking," Riku asked, an almost pleading tone to his voice. It wasn't so much for his friend's sake as it was his own. He really did not want to know what they did behind closed doors. Well, he'd probably be willing to discuss it with just Sora and the guys, but he had been brought up in a home where you just didn't talk about that stuff in front of women. "Besides, we're here."

"Gloomy, isn't it?" Kairi asked sadly as she looked out the window, remembering the last time that they were there. "Think there are still Nobodies and Heartless there?"

"The Nobodies are probably gone," Sora said as kept his hands on her hips, leaning on her a bit so that he could see out the window better. "They tend to leave worlds that they've already wrecked. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if there were still some Heartless down there though."

"Where's the closest warp spot to the mansion?" Riku asked. He had been to Twilight Town more than his fair share of times, but never by gummi ship.

"There's a spot in the mansion," Sora said thoughtfully, "but I don't think we should aim for there. We have no clue if it sustained any damage since we were last there. Actually we never saw the inside of it at all. It could be in ruins for all we know. I know there was nothing that could collapse on us in the forest though, since it was dead thanks to Sarlio. We could try to aim for there, it shouldn't be that hard to set."

The sounds of footsteps greeted them, and they all looked up to see Mickey, Donald and Goofy approaching. Mickey glanced at the four of them and asked, "Ready to go?"

"As ready as we'll ever be," Sora replied as he fiddled with the controls in front of him, setting it so that they would appear in the destroyed forest.

"Alright," Riku said, and almost excited tone to his voice, "lets go witch hunting."

"You've been waiting to use that line all week, haven't you?" Kairi asked him dryly.

"You have no idea."

**VVVVVVVVVV**

Donald and Goofy were shocked to see the sheer destruction of the world. There were a few linger Heartless, but aside from that and some people who were turned to wood, it was devoid of life. Twilight Town had always been such a cheerful, lively place, but now the silence was almost deafening. It was only proof that few people truly knew what silence was these days. There was always humming noises in the background, whether people realized it or not. Things like lights humming, a car or boat passing, people outside, the hum of a fridge, or even just the very slight sound of electricity running through a house. There was always sound, and throwing a person in a place without any of these synthetic sounds could even give them headaches. Riku was one of these people.

He was used to the sound of the gummi ship and everything else that the silence was weighing in on him. It felt like when he and Mickey were lost in the darkness.

Midori started humming softly behind him, as if sensing his inner turmoil. Riku didn't give her any sign that he could heard her, instead choosing to keep walking after everyone else.

Mickey was the one who stayed stoic out of all of them. He knew how to control his emotions in almost any situations, sans a few of them. He was silently leading the way towards the mansion, keeping alert for any sudden sounds or movements. He wanted to tell Midori to stop humming, but he knew that it was almost too quite there for some of them.

Mickey looked around and saw Sora and Kairi walking silently side by side. They were as silent as everyone else, but Mickey had a feeling that they were almost more alert than even he was. Every once and a while, he would see Kairi's arm twitch, and he got the strong impression that she wanted to hold Sora's hand for comfort, but she was trying to be brave.

Getting into the mansion wasn't really a problem, because the doors were broken open. The problem was that it was very dark inside, and it was hard to see much detail in anything. Donald started heading towards the stairs, but as he got on the first one, a loud creaking echoed through the eerily quiet house.

Mickey heard Kairi let out a small gasp, followed by the sound of her moving quickly, and he guessed (correctly) that she had given in and grabbed a hold of Sora.

"Garwsh, those stairs don't sound very safe," Goofy said.

"There's two sets of them," Mickey said, "so lets check out the other one. If it's just as bad, then we'll try to think of something else."

Goofy was the first one up the steps this time. There was no loud creaking this time, but he motioned for everyone else to stay where they were before walking up a few more. The sounds started to come from where he stepped, but he managed to get to the second floor without any mishaps.

"I don't think it can hold more than one person at a time," Mickey said doubtfully. "Donald, you and I are the lightest so there's a better chance we could get up the other stairs. The heaviest should go first."

"That'd be me," Riku said. He didn't give anyone the chance to protest (because it was obvious that Riku had to be the heaviest based on his body type), and carefully started walking up the stairs. Just like Goofy had, he took them one step at a time, and while the boards seemed to protest a little more, he got up with out a problem.

"You'd be next," Midori said to Sora. She might have been older, but he was still a little bit taller and her and had a bit more muscle mass.

Kairi squeezed Sora's hand tightly and he said, "Don't worry, I'll be waiting for you right up there." She nodded her head and let go, taking a step away from him as he started walking up the stairs. There were a few times when Kairi felt her breath catch in her throat as the stairs groaned under his feet, but she let it all go when he got to the top. Glancing around, she said, "I'm not sure which one of us should go next."

"I have a bit more muscle mass than you," Midori said after a moment. "So I'm the heavier one, but if you want to go first, go for it."

"No," Kairi said while shaking her head. "I have a better chance of getting up the other stairs than you would then."

Midori nodded and began climbing up the stairs. She was almost to the top when the groaning of the wood became dangerously loud, just as the stairs under her feet began to collapse.

Kairi screamed as she watched the girl start to fall through the stairs, but Goofy managed to grab her hand to stop her from falling. The stairs that he was now laying on started to crumble away too, but Sora and Riku managed to drag both Midori and Goofy to safety.

"Looks like we're stuck going the other way," Donald said warily.

Mickey nodded and looked up to Kairi while asking, "You okay?"

"Yeah," she said while taking a deep breath. "I'm good."

"Try to climb up the other stairs," Sora called down to them. "We'll be right here if anything starts to go wrong."

"Gotcha," Mickey called back as they reached the staircase that seemed much more broken than the other one. He was about to go up when he saw Kairi starting to protest. "We don't even know if these stairs can even hold me. I'm not sending you or Donald up if it's just going to break." Sure enough, when he was half way up, the stairs began to crumble and he ran, just making it to the top in time. There was no way the stairs would have held Kairi, and she probably wouldn't have been quick enough to get up them before they collapsed under her feet.

"What now?" Donald called up to them, glancing at Kairi nervously.

"We're wasting time!" Kairi exclaimed before any of them could reply. "You guys keep going. Donald and I will find something to pad the ground under the railing with or something, because you're going to have to jump over it to get back down."

"You sure?" Sora asked hesitantly. "I can come back down if you want."

She did want him to come down, but she was determined to keep a brave face on. She didn't want to be the one to hold him back. It wasn't fair to him to have to keep watching and thinking about her. She nodded her head and said, "Yeah. Don't worry, I'll be fine with Donald. Between his magic and my Keyblade, we'll be able to take out anything!"

"That's right!" the duck agreed enthusiastically.

Sora smiled, knowing that she was being strong for him, and he could honestly say he was proud of her. She was trying so hard to get herself back to how she used to be before the trauma, torture and rape. It was a long time coming, but she was definitely improving a lot. "Okay. We'll be back soon. Promise." Despite his comforting words, he hesitated in leaving. If he could be honest, he had been with only Kairi for so long that the thought of leaving her behind for any reason unsettled him. He knew Donald was powerful when it came to magic (maybe not to the extent of Yen Sid or Merlin, but he was still strong), but at the same time, the only person aside from himself that he trusted to really protect Kairi was Roxas, and really that wasn't a far cry from himself.

Sora felt someone put a hand on his shoulder and he looked around with surprise, seeing that it was Goofy. Goofy didn't say a word, he just nodded towards the door that they needed to go to, and Sora smiled a bit. He really missed traveling with Donald and Goofy sometimes.

Taking a deep breath, he started going towards the door. Maybe it was best that Kairi wasn't going with them, because they had to travel through the darkness to get to their destination, and that might have brought back too many bad memories for her.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

Donald had originally suggested splitting up to try to find something that might spare their friends some pain from falling, but seeing her frightened features, he said that they could stick together. She then pointed out that they really didn't need to find anything, because Sora had jumped off of a cliff without getting hurt. Sure, it hadn't been an extremely huge one, but he could take a small staircase, and she had no doubt that the others could as well. The Keyblade gave them odd powers, even if they didn't realize it.

So instead, they decided to explore the ground floor of the mansion. It was pretty empty, but there were a lot of broken and destroyed things in the mansion.

Kairi let her mind wander, piecing together a story of how a kind man had once lived there with his daughter before an evil man murdered him and tried to keep her in the house. Then, of course, a handsome knight in shining armour would appear and fight off the evil man and save the beautiful girl from her horrid fate. They would ride off into the sunset while sharing a kiss and that was where any good children's fairytale would end, but her mind kept going to what would happen after that.

"Kairi!"

She jumped a bit. She hadn't realized that Donald was trying to get her attention as her mind went through the wedding the hero (who had turned from a generic character into Sora) to the beautiful girl (obviously, this was now her), and her hormonal teenage mind led that to the wedding night, and that was when Donald finally caught her attention.

Her face burned brightly, and she felt embarrassed as if Donald could read her mind to see what she had been thinking about. She cleared her throat and asked, "Yeah Donald?"

"We have a bit of a problem."

Kairi frowned as he motioned for her to come to the door and peak through the cracks. She peered through and gulped nervously as she saw a bunch of huge Heartless appearing and wandering through the rooms. She didn't summon her Keyblade yet though, knowing it would instantly attract them.

She looked around the room that they were in, frowning at how small it was. The Heartless could easily attack with their sharp, vicious claws, but she and Donald would need a little more room to fight back so that they wouldn't hurt each other. Donald seemed to have realized the same thing too and looked at her warily. He motioned towards the window, but she knew that if they smashed it that it would instantly attract the creatures, and Donald wasn't tall enough to get through.

Kairi walked towards the window, wondering why it was so high up, and jumped to grab the edge. She could just barely reach it on her tiptoes, and she couldn't get a good enough grip to pull herself up. Frowning a bit, a sudden look of inspiration appeared on her face. She couldn't get out, but she could lift up Donald and he would be up high enough to get out.

Turning to him, she whispered, "If we break the window, I can get you out."

"What about you?" Donald asked. He was well aware that if anything happened to Kairi, Sora was going to roast him alive.

"I'll be stuck in here," she said, her voice wavering a bit. There were a few times that she had been separated from Sora and left to fend for herself, but not since Jorix had captured her. She hadn't been on her own since then, and now she couldn't help but feel nervous about it.

"I can run around the side," Donald said, "and come in the front doors to take them that way. They'll be divided, some going after you and some coming after me. Unless you want me to stay."

She was confused for a moment before Kairi realized that her hands were shaking. She nodded her head and said, "I'll be fine." Before Donald could protest, she summoned her Keyblade, aimed it at the window and yelled, "Blizzaga!" The lightning smashed into the window, destroying it in a loud crash. The Heartless outside the room suddenly came to a halt before moving again, this time towards the closed door.

Kairi lifted up Donald, pushing him towards the window. He didn't want to leave her exposed to the Heartless without a weapon for too long, so he climbed out with a wobbled, "I'll be back in a minute."

She turned around just as the door broke open, summoning Oathkeeper into her hand. She took a deep breath as she faced the large, imposing Heartless and muttered to herself, "Here we go."

**VVVVVVVVVV**

Roxas was honestly surprised that the Castle that Never Was was still intact. There was a huge part of it that had fallen apart, but majority of it was exactly like he remembered, minus a bit of dust. Apparently Maleficent didn't hire house cleaning. Roxas thought that there would be a feeling of home or sadness that would hit him when seeing the place again, since he had only been partially conscious within Sora the last time they were there, but he felt the exact opposite. A string of anger and loathing passed through him as he gazed at the castle, but he wasn't quite sure why. The easiest answer was that the rest of the Organization had hurt both Naminé and Kairi at some point of time, and that was a good enough reason to loathe them, let alone the whole messing up other worlds thing. Then again, he did betray them, so there really wasn't anything left there worthwhile. He had left to find—

Roxas' musings were cut short as he wracked his memories. He left to find Sora, he was pretty sure of that. But the blurred memories he had of fighting Riku back then showed him heading back towards the intimidating structure and he couldn't remember why. If he was leaving to find Sora, why was he running back?

There were no Heartless on their way into the castle, something that instantly made them all wary. Mickey was leading the way once again with Midori and Goofy not far behind him. Sora trailed after them a bit, visibly distracted, and Riku was behind him to make sure that is spaced-out friend wouldn't get attacked from behind.

They walked right into the castle without any opposition. All of them had the strict feeling that Maleficent knew they were there though. She enjoyed manipulating her enemies and toying with their minds.

They went up in the huge elevator, up what felt like hundreds of steps and halls until they reached a room where a huge balcony overlooked the floor below it. There, waiting for them in all of her glory, was Maleficent.

Midori had never actually seen the green-skinned witch for herself, and was a little bit surprised. She had been expecting an old, hunched over, fat, hideous creature with warts. Maleficent, for a creature of darkness, was none of those things. In comparison to the typical stereotype of witches, she was almost beautiful in her own way with her high cheekbones and her impossibly straight posture. There wasn't a wrinkle on her green-tinted skin, and she appeared very calm, almost smug actually. Midori couldn't help but find her intimidating with her black robes, smug smirk, knowing eyes and black headdress shaped like horns.

"So," she said, her voice extremely cool and calm, "the Keyblade Bearers have decided to pay me a visit, have them? How lovely."

"Woah, woah, you're telling me that the Keybrat is—" Maleficent waved her arm, and Pete was quickly silenced.

Mickey eyed the group that hovered behind Maleficent suspiciously. There was a woman with hair that was black on one side and white on the other, a large tiger, a little old woman with almost purple-tinted skin, a lion with a crown standing on two legs, and a few others farther back that Mickey couldn't make out.

Maleficent seemed to realize what he was looking at, and with a quick movement of her staff, they all vanished. "Forgive me," she said, "I was just in the middle of a small business meeting, if you will. Now do tell, what may I help you with?"

"You knew we were coming," Riku snarled at her, his eyes portraying nothing but hate. "So you tell us."

"Such anger Riku," she replied with a dark smirk. "Anger fueled by so much darkness. Tell me, how often do you wish you could go back to using the darkness? How often do you feel weak without it?"

"Leave him alone," Sora snapped, taking a step forward. "You know why we're here."

There was a blast of green flames on the balcony as she vanished, appearing directly in front of Sora, who was visibly startled. He went to summon his Keyblade, but her in a flash of green flames, and a cry of pain, he stumbled back and to the ground.

"Sora!" His friends surrounded him, and Midori knelt next to him. His gloves were singed badly, so instead of yanking them off of his hands she started cutting them off instead.

Mickey summoned his Keyblade and pointed it at her. She stared at him cooly and said, "Think of it as a warning. You are only in tact because I want you to be." She turned away from them and said, "Do you notice what's missing from this castle? Or rather the sky beyond it? Kingdom Hearts vanished a long time ago, but now I know that it was because it wasn't the real one. The real one has power far beyond this. That is my goal. Why strain my resources though when your other enemies can do that for me? When they find the gate, and they will, I will dispose of them."

"Why am I not surprised that you're using someone else to do your dirty work?" Riku snarled at her, standing up and joining Mickey, his Keyblade appearing in his hand.

"I'm sure you're above childish misgivings Riku," Maleficent said calmly.

Riku knew that she was trying to get under his skin, and she was. His hand started to shake and he was above to move at her but stopped when he heard Sora say, "Don't Riku." Looking around at his friend, he had to wince. His hands were burned badly but neither Goofy nor Midori were healing it. Riku knew enough now to know that healing magic was a fickle thing, and while it could make wounds disappear, bigger wounds should be treated other ways first. There was no doubt that Sora wasn't going to be able to hold his Keyblade for a while.

Despite the pain, Sora was looking at Maleficent with a determined look and asked, "I know you're after what they're after. The power of Kingdom Hearts. What do I have to do with anything though?"

She looked interested and slightly surprised before smirking and saying, "So, the Keyblade Master has no clue how he fits into the scheme of things? How interesting. It's simple, you're the one who is going to let them into the ruins of Twilight's Destiny. And you will let them in."

"I suppose you know where this gate is too then?" Midori asked snapped.

"But of course," Maleficent replied, her voice still holding an air of superiority and her movements almost elegant. "I suppose you don't have the slightest clue, do you?"

"Five," Sora muttered, pain now lacing through his voice as Goofy placed a chunk of ice he created against his burned hands. "There are five different places it can be in. We need it narrowed down."

Turning to face away from them Maleficent said, "Ahh yes, the same dilemma that the rest of us face, finding the correct gate. I suppose if you do not get there then there is little point to hoping that they can get the gate opened. Living Jungle, Mysterious Abyss, Crystal Shards, Burning Embers and Keyblade Graveyard. Well, I can tell you that the gate is not located in the Keyblade Graveyard."

"That's it?" Riku exploded as she started to walk away. "You're just going to tell us it's not in one place?"

"They will capture him," she motioned to Sora, "or they will take what's most important to him to lure him in. Either way, the gate will be opened for me, and perhaps I'll even let you deal with them before staking my claim to Kingdom Hearts. Now, I have more important business to deal with rather than children like you."

"Hold on a second!" Riku growled, but she vanished in a swirl of green fire.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

"Fucking Donald," was the only thing that Kairi could say as she fought off the Heartless. The duck had gone around to the front door like he promised, and he started fighting off the Heartless, but he had been ambushed by several of them and knocked unconscious. Kairi had managed to get out of the small room and was now standing protectively in front of him, not wanting him to lose his heart. She didn't want to use all of her magic to heal him when it was the only thing that seemed effective enough to hit so many Heartless in one go, and Donald didn't have a single potion, ether or anything on him, having used them before. If this were one of those videogames she played with Sora and Riku from time to time, she would have switched him out a long time ago for something a little more useful. She couldn't heal him, and she couldn't leave him either, otherwise he would be attacked.

She was very limited in her movements, so while she was keeping the Heartless away, she couldn't move away from him and the Heartless seemed to figure this out. More and more kept massing around her, scraping at her legs and sometimes her arms, but she would always plunge her Keyblade into them when they did.

She had to admit though, given the amount of time she had been fighting off the Heartless, and how exhausted she was from using so much of her magic to keep them away, she was proud of herself. While she wished Sora was there to help her, she never once cringed away from the creatures, never felt the pure fear that she thought she would.

A loud bang startled her, and the three Heartless closest to her vanished as a shield hit them. There was only one being that she knew used a shield to fight, and she automatically felt more confident because she knew that everyone else was back.

Goofy appeared a moment later, standing in front of her and bashing the Heartless away with his shield while holding out a high potion for her. She took it gratefully and put some of it on her skin to heal a few of her deeper outside wounds before drinking the rest, feeling her energy coming back to her. She would have given it to Donald, but to be fair, her weapon was more effective against Heartless than his.

Mickey and Riku appeared, fighting off the Heartless hordes. A frown appeared on her face though as she slashed Oathkeeper through a Neoshadow. Sora wasn't there. She vaguely registered that Midori wasn't there either, but Sora wasn't there and he should have been. Her worried thoughts vanished as a particularly large Heartless jumped at her, but she pushed it away.

Riku seemed to be in a vicious mood. He slashed through anything that came within a ten-foot radius of him, throwing fireballs at things that were farther than that. Kairi was amazed with both his speed and the sheer ferocity that he was attacking with. The Heartless were dealt with quickly, and the few who were left vanished.

Riku was breathing heavily and Kairi heard him mutter, "That stupid bitch. Stupid, stupid bitch." Once Goofy and Mickey came over to check on Donald, she walked over to Riku to see what was wrong with him. She reached out to put her hand on his shoulder, but he swung around quickly and grabbed her arm.

She jumped and let out quick, sharp scream, her eyes widening with panic as she jerked away from him quickly, but his grip on her arm was too tight. Riku's angered expression quickly vanished and he let go of her quickly, taking a step back from her and saying, "Oh my god, Kairi. I'm sorry! I didn't mean—I thought you were. I—I—"

Tears were already in her eyes and she took a step away from him warily. He felt horrible as he watched her lips tremble a bit before asking, "Where's Sora?"

"Up here!" She looked around when she heard Midori's voice, looking at the second floor. The railing itself had been partially torn apart by Heartless earlier so she could see directly onto the second floor itself, and a horrified feeling passed through her. Midori was kneeling on the ground, cradling Sora's head on her lap. He was unconscious, but there was a pained look on his features.

"What happened to him?" she asked, her voice rising shrilly. "What happened?"

"Maleficent," Mickey explained as Goofy helped a woozy Donald off of the floor. "She appeared in front of him, he tried to summon his Keyblade, but in order to keep it away, Maleficent burned his hands really badly. He was in a lot of pain so we put him to sleep."

"How do we get him down?" Kairi said in a rather demanding tone of voice.

"Use aeroga," Donald muttered, causing everyone to look at him curiously. He seemed to realize this so he explained, "If you use areoga, Midori should be able to lower him into the wind and we can slowly stop the magic, lowering him as we do." Kairi instantly wanted to take back all her horrible thoughts about Donald earlier. He definitely had his useful moments.

She and Mickey were the ones to use the spell to get Sora down since Donald was still partially out of it and Riku and Goofy weren't as good with magic. Midori jumped down after they moved him out of the way, but Kairi didn't pay attention to her. Instead, she stared at Sora's hands. They were a painful red with blisters and blood scattered over them. They were incredibly bad burns.

Midori couldn't help but notice that, the second Kairi touched him, the pained look on his face went away. Watching Kairi run her hand through Sora's hair, Midori realized that his reaction might not have been to the pain, but knowing that she was in trouble. The connection between their hearts was that strong, and she found it remarkable. She had never seen anything like that before in her life.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

Sora's eyes slid open as a groan escaped his lips. He went to bring his hand up to his eye to rub the sleep that collected in the corner of his eyes but stopped, staring at his hands with surprise. They were wrapped in thick layers of bandages and gauze, hiding his fingers from view entirely, looking like a massive pair of white mittens.

A small sound caught his attention. He looked away from his hands and a small smile appeared on his face. Kairi was sitting in a chair next to him, her head resting on the mattress next to him. That was when he realized that he wasn't in their room on the gummi ship, or even their room in Disney Castle, but what looked like a hospital room.

Kairi let out another sound and her eyes opened. She looked up at him, a huge smile appearing on her face as she straightened up and said, "Hey."

"Hey," he replied with a smile. Glancing down at his hands, he remembered Maleficent burning him, but he hadn't thought it was that bad.

As if sensing what he was thinking, Kairi said, "It's pretty bad. The doctors said that most of your fingers are fine, only minor heat burns, but the rest is pretty bad. It's going to be scarred something bad."

"Great," Sora muttered, "not only can I not use my Keyblade, but my hands are going to look like something that you see in horror movies." He let out a sigh and pouted at the ceiling.

Kairi sighed and nudged him a bit so that he would move over on the bed. Once he did, she climbed up and sat beside him and said, "Don't be so vain. It doesn't matter to me, so it shouldn't matter to you. Since you like wearing gloves anyway, we'll get you a new pair so that people won't stare or anything at first. I'm expecting the gloves to be off whenever you're with me though. You're lucky that you didn't have to lose your hands."

Sora shuttered at the thought of losing any limbs and said, "Yeah, I'd hate to lose an arm or a leg or something."

"Knowing our luck, I'll probably end up doing something wrong and making you lose your arm," Kairi said with a sigh as she rested again him, moving his arm so that it came around her shoulder and gently touched his bandaged hand.

"How would you do that? Would my arm get possessed by darkness and you'll have to use light magic, blowing it up in the process?" he asked playfully. There was a pause before they both giggled at how absurd something like that sounded.

"Why am I tired?" he whispered to her after a moment of comfortable silence.

"It's the pain medication," Kairi explained. "The doctors said that you would feel tired once you woke up because they actually had to perform a bit of surgery. I think it was something along the lines of trying to save your nerves. Everything went well though. I was so worried."

"I'm sorry," Sora said as he placed a small kiss on her forehead. "You're okay now, right?"

"Perfectly fine," she replied happily. "You should go back to sleep."

"Where are we anyway?" Sora muttered as his eyes started to slip shut.

"Oh, we're back in Disney," Kairi explained. "So don't worry, you're safe and I'm safe. Go to sleep." She moved so that she was sitting up a little more and he was the one with his head leaning on her. She hummed a bit, running her hands through his hair, and the comfort combined with the medication was too much for him. He was asleep within minutes.

"Why is it always us who get hurt? Riku hasn't had it nearly this bad. Neither has Mickey and Midori." She sighed, running a finger over the spot on his forehead that still had a small scar from where he had tripped and practically bashed his brains out on a rock. She knew that it was a little sensitive, and it probably always would be.

"You do so much to protect me," Kairi whispered to him, her lips pressing to the sensitive spot on his head for just a moment, "but I'm going to protect you too from now on. Me being fine won't matter if you're no there with me."

When the doctors came to check up on them later, they had to smile as they saw the two curled up together. Instead of waking Kairi up and telling her to move, they left her there. After all, the residences of Disney knew more than anyone else that sometimes it wasn't the medicine that made the difference, but the people that made someone get better.

**Author's Note**

First off, yes, I know Sora gets hurt a lot in this. Like, it's a reoccurring thing. Each thing helps build his character a little more each time in different ways. It's not just a random thing that I just keep repeating. Trust me, I have pretty much every little twist and turn in this planned and thought out. And yes, his hands were burned that bad.

Yes Shire Folk, I went there. What can I say? Poking fun at other things is fun.

The Disney villains that Maleficent was 'meeting' with won't necessarily be showing up in the future. Why? Cause I say so. It was just to show that she's always working on something.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed. Sorry if I didn't reply to you directly, it's been a busy week! So thank you to Shire Folk, Shifuni, Trainalf, shadowwolf547, BlackWhiteZangetsu, NRZWorld 13, and KaUiA.

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	34. Lies

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Thirty-Three - Lies_

Mickey made sure that their gummi ship was working properly this time, because they had to go from practically one side of the galaxy to the next to try and find the entrance to Twilight's Destiny. Though he was reluctant to listen to Maleficent who said that the gate to Twilight's Destiny was not in the Keyblade Graveyard, he had to admit that she was probably right. He had been to that world himself a long time ago, and was sure that he and the others there would have noticed something. Plus, Maleficent wanted Sora to get there, so she wasn't going to tell him not to go to the place she wanted him to go.

Mickey felt bad for Sora. The young man was handling his injury in leaps and bounds, turning it into something positive. He couldn't hold his Keyblades at the moment, so instead he turned it into intense training on using his Keyblades with his mind. Mickey had to admit, he was impressed with his improvement. He was getting stronger and stronger every day, which he demonstrated with not only his control over the Keyblades, but his stamina. Mickey had only seen one person use a Keyblade telepathically before, and she had told him that it had taken her months of intense training to be able to do it at all and she could only use her Keyblade like that for short periods of time. Yet, here was Sora, without a master to help him, making not one but two weapons float around in front of him. The only drawback was that Sora usually became exhausted afterward. He also felt bad because he knew the boy was in pain most of the time.

Sora managed to keep a happy facade up, saying that he was fine, but when he thought no one was looking he would show his pain. Mickey had confronted him about it the day before, not wanting to take him into more danger if the pain would distract him. They went back to the doctor who checked his hands. His bandages had to be changed every single day, and the doctor gave him special ones that would allow the wounds to breathe, as well as a cream to put on it. On top of all of that, Sora was given pain medication. The drawback was that it would make him drowsy.

This gummi ship was bigger than the other one, with enough rooms for everyone going, but Mickey had a feeling that the one he told Kairi to stay in was probably going to be vacant for the most part. She had taken it upon herself to look after Sora, changing his bandages, rubbing the cream on his burnt hands and forcing him to take the medicine when the pain became too much. Mickey rarely ever saw one without the other, and in a way, it amazed him. He would have thought that being together all the time would have driven them both insane, but it didn't. Most teenagers, he knew, needed a bit of space away from their partner, but not them. Actually, to Mickey, they acted more like they were married rather than just dating. The thought had to make the mouse smile though.

"Everything's ready your Majesty," Donald said to him. "Queen Minnie would like to talk to you though."

"You should go say bye to Daisy too," Mickey told his friend. "Goofy went to go check in with Max earlier, so I know she would be livid if you didn't at least go and talk to her."

The thought of an angry Daisy was enough to make Donald want to cringe and hide. Mickey shook his head with amusement as the duck ran before he left the ship to find his wife. He didn't know how long they were going to be away, or what would happen, but he had a feeling that it was going to be more difficult than anything else they had faced before.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

Sora stared at the map in front of him with a rather blank look on his features. One of the worlds highlighted on it (which had been found thanks to the endless research Chip, Dale and Max put in, as well as some help from Yen Sid) held the answer to the riddle that they were trying to solve. The gate to the castle of Twilight's Destiny was there, and so were their enemies.

He moved, and winced as he ended up hitting his hand on the wall that his desk was beside. He felt so useless at the moment, but there was nothing he could do about it except what the doctors had told him to do. Donald had explained that the damage was too extensive to use curaga on, and any sort of potions might actually end up burning it more. He didn't want that, so to make himself feel a little more useful he put everything he could into his training with the Keyblades, but still, when he was so exhausted afterward, he felt useless.

He jumped as he felt Kairi's lips gently dust over his neck, followed by a giggle. It was the middle of the night, but he couldn't sleep so he had been sitting in his room. He couldn't figure out how to work the heating system in the room yet, so he had removed his shirt in an attempt to get cooler. As he felt her cool hands slip around his bare shoulders, he decided that it was the best decision he had ever made.

"What are you doing up?" Kairi asked him while pressing her lips to the back of his neck with small butterfly kisses.

"I—well I was trying to—I mean I—" he stuttered and she giggled. She knew that her kisses were distracting him, but that had been the purpose in the first place.

Her hands ran down his bare arms until reaching just above his bandages. She hummed a bit and said, "Come on Sora, you should be asleep."

"So should you," he finally managed to say. "Kairi, stop it."

She automatically pulled away from him, and he was a little stunned from the cooler air that touched his skin again. He turned around and automatically grew wary at her smug look.

"What's the matter baby?" she said with a teasing tone of voice. "You told me to stop."

Sora got up from the chair and moved his arms around her, pulling her close and saying, "I said stop, not to go away." He went to move closer to her, but she backed up a bit, staring at him with amusement. Sora pulled her as close to him as he could and said, "You are such a tease sometimes. I swear, you're trying to drive me insane." Sora pressed kisses against her shoulder, still keeping himself aware of her reactions to him. She didn't tense up or anything, so he took it as a good sign. He also took the fact that she shoved him back roughly onto his bed as a very good sign.

As they kissed each other deeply, in almost a wild, animalistic way, Sora couldn't help but fantasize a little bit, but he knew that they weren't going to go beyond making out. Still, he hands slid down towards her round rump, because even if the palms of his hands were covered the fingers were exposed a bit, but Kairi quickly broke their kiss and said, "No, no Sora. Those stay up here." She reached back and gently pulled his hands up before rolling them sideways so that they were lying side by side.

"Why?" Sora asked with a pout. "I didn't think you minded."

"Er...it's not that," she admitted with an embarrassed blush. "I was cleaning my room out earlier to give me something to do and I set all my clothes in a bag in the hall. Then Riku, the douchebag that he is, was walking with like this tub of grease, don't ask why, I don't know. Anyway he tripped and got it over all of my clothes. I managed to salvage this shirt and these shorts but aside from that…"

Sora's eyes widened in realization and he blurted out, "Holy crap, my girlfriend's going commando!" She looked embarrassed as his eyes seemed to glue themselves onto her shorts, so he added, "Come on Iri, it's not that bad. I've seen you in less. Actually I've seen you in nothing."

She frowned a bit as he eyes wandered up and down her body and said, "Fine, be that way. I'm going back to my room." She went to get up, but Sora hugged her close, not saying a word. Instead he just hid his face in her red hair, falling to sleep rather quickly.

Kairi had to smile at his reaction to her leaving. She sighed happily and rolled over so that she was facing him and whispered, "Some day soon Sora, I promise." She rested her head under his chin and finally felt herself drifting off to sleep. She hadn't been able to sleep because nightmares plagued her, but now that she was in Sora's arms, she could only feel safe.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

"Wow," Donald said as he peered out of the front window of the ship. His eyes were studying the world closest to them with interest. It wasn't one that they were going to land on, but it was strange to look at. There were small spots of water, and two massive polar icecaps, but aside from that it looked barren and dead. The only anomalies were two or three huge patches of vegetation that were cut into perfect circles, as if the dryness on the outside was being kept out by something.

"Would ya look at that," Goofy added in. "It's someone came and took a bit bite out of er."

"What is that world anyway?" Sora asked, looking on with interest. He couldn't actually fly the ship himself, but sitting up front with Donald and Goofy reminded him of the good old days. Well, he probably could have in an emergency, but it would probably irritate his hands a bit.

As much as he adored having Kairi with him, and he didn't have to worry about Riku either, he also missed just flying around the universe trying to get rid of the Heartless. Looking back, though it had been difficult at the time, in comparison, his first journey was nothing compared to this.

Goofy was fiddling with the navigation system and said, "Says here that it's called Forbidden World."

"Wow, if that isn't an ominous name, I don't know what is," Sora said while looking out at the world.

"Do you even know what ominous means?" Donald asked dryly.

"Do you?" Sora shot back. Donald just ignored him before an odd look appeared on his face and he asked, "Does that sound familiar to you? Forbidden World?"

"No," the Keyblade Master answered with a shrug.

"Well, now that ya mention it, it does ring a bell," Goofy said thoughtfully. "I think I heard of it somewhere before."

Donald looked thoughtful as he continued to steer the ship before suddenly jumping and exclaiming, "Oh I know!"

"Donald!" Sora and Goofy both yelled as the duck smacked the steering of the ship, causing it to jerk and roll. He heard surprised yells from farther in the ship. Donald fell out of his seat, Sora and Goody tumbling after him a moment later. They all lay there for a moment before a loud bang rocked the ship and the lights began to flicker. The flickering lights were the least of their problems though as something else crashed into the ship, causing it to jerk and roll again.

Sora managed to grab a hold of the driver's chair as they slid by it, and managed to climb up to attempt to grab the steering. He couldn't fit his hand around the controls, but he could grab them a bit with his fingers. He managed to straighten the ship out, and that was when he saw exactly what they had run in to.

"Donald," he said between gritted teeth, "you flew us into a meteor shower!" He tried to hit a few buttons to put them in their warp drive, but it didn't work. He groaned and hit his head against the controls when he realized that Donald had broke yet another warp gummi. He straightened himself up and jerked the controls to try to avoid the meteors, but there were so many of them rushing passed so fast that he knew the best thing would be to get out of their way as soon as possible.

"Hit the intercom and tell them to hold on to something," Sora told Goofy, who managed to climb back into his chair, Donald quietly climbing back into the other one. "We have to go to that world in order to avoid this."

Goofy relayed the message, and Donald suddenly shouted, "Sora!"

"What?" he asked, thinking the duck had seen something that he hadn't.

"I know where we heard of this place before," he explained as the ship started to shake. He hated actually going onto the worlds because going through atmospheres was always rough, but he knew that they had to.

"Really? Where?"

"Midori said that this is the world Crysita's from!"

Sora didn't have the chance to answer. He had to focus on leveling the ship out so that they wouldn't crash directly into the ground. He straightened it out, and actually managed to land it rather smoothly, considering the circumstances. Aside from the damage that had occurred in space, and probably a few scratches on the outside, there weren't any more problems.

"What happened?" Mickey asked, as he rushed through the door to the bridge. Riku and Midori were right behind him, both looking rather frazzled, and Kairi pushed pass them, automatically going to Sora.

"Someone got overexcited and drove us straight into a meteor shower," Sora grumbled before looking down at Kairi. She was checking his hands to make sure they weren't bleeding or anything, but he couldn't help but notice that her own hands were shaking. "So I had to land us on the closest world."

"Where are we?" Riku asked, peering outside the window at a rather dry, dead looking place.

"That's the good news," Goofy said. "Maybe we can find some information here."

"Yeah, this is the Forbidden World."

"Hey, didn't you say that this was Crysita's home world?" Mickey asked, looking at Midori who suddenly seemed more panicked than anything else.

"Yes, it is, but we—don't open that door!" Riku actually jumped as she yelled at him, staring at her with wide eyes. Midori was aware that everyone was staring at her oddly so she said, "This world is dangerous, very dangerous. You don't want to go stumbling outside if it's going to be nightfall soon."

"Why? The vampires coming out to play?" Sora joked, glancing down at Kairi with a small smirk, knowing that the only vampire she actually liked was him in Halloween Town.

"Not exactly," Midori said while glancing out at the world warily, "but they're pretty damn close."

Kairi tensed up and everyone else looked a little surprised. She shuddered a bit at the thought of real vampires and asked, "How are they close?"

"There are things here that can only come out at night. Their skin will start to burn if they come out into the sunlight because it's far too sensitive. They'll attack any living though," she explained.

"Well, we need to get outside to check how much damage was done to the ship," Sora said as he moved his arm around Kairi's shoulder. "What time is it now?"

"Close to 5:30, why?" Mickey asked curiously.

"Seems early enough to me. We just have to get back to the ship before dark," Sora explained.

"I suppose it can't hurt," Midori agreed after a moment, seeming very reluctant to do so. "The sun usually goes down around ten at night anyway."

"I don't want to go," Kairi muttered in a rather sulky voice.

"You want to stay here alone?" Riku asked her, amusing passing over his face when she shook her head wildly, moving closer to Sora. "Don't worry Princess, we'll make sure nothing tries to eat you." Kairi glared at him.

They all exited the damaged gummi ship and went to look at exactly what needed to be fixed. It was Mickey who had discovered that part of it had been taken off by a meteor and damaged the warp gummi. As well, their communication gummi was completely smashed, so there was no way they'd be able to communicate with anyone else. He said that it might have been possible to fix it, but they didn't have all the proper tools.

Sora had to admit, he didn't really like standing outside in this world. The sun's rays were hot, but at the same time, the still air around them was freezing. He would have almost wished for snow or something. He was suddenly envious of Kairi's sweater and pants, but he settled for holding her close to him for warmth.

"Think there might be some in that city over there?" Riku asked, pointing at the rather ruined city that was not to far from them. "I'm not sure how old it is or if they'd have the right things but—"

"We should be able to find the right things in that place," Midori said reluctantly. "Everything here is pretty modern. Or it used to be."

"How do you know so much about this place?" Sora asked her curiously. "I mean, it sounds like you know it a lot better than just researching it or something."

Everyone stared at her as she got off of the ground from where she had been helping check the ship. She dusted off her shorts, and Sora suddenly found it odd that she was wearing shorts and a tanktop, yet the cold wasn't bothering her that much. She stared at them all her turn and said, "Yeah, I know a lot about this world."

"How?" Kairi repeated Sora's question.

She sighed and took a few steps away from them, crossing her arms in front of his chest as she stared out at the city. Shaking her head, she said, "Because this place used to be my home."

There was a stunned silence before Riku said, "This is the matriarchal, proud world you come from? It doesn't look all that...great."

She chuckled sadly and turned to face him while saying, "It's not anymore. It used to be something great, but then it all fell apart. I never wanted to come back here to be honest. I never wanted to see the world that died before my eyes again."

"You lived in this city Midori?" Mickey asked curiously.

"Yup," she answered. Shrugging a bit she added, "It probably hasn't changed much. I remember where the hardware store is, so we can go look there. What time is it?"

"Only six," Riku said as he checked his phone.

Midori nodded and said, "Okay. Lets go." She started heading towards the city, with everyone else keeping up with her, not wanting to get lost anywhere with strange and dangerous creatures hidden somewhere.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

Kairi held Sora's arm and shuddered as they walked slowly through the city. Her eyes darted every which way, feeling like something was watching them. The feeling had come to her the second they entered the city, and it only got worse the farther they got to the center where a large, ruined building still stood.

"Wow," Donald said with surprise. "What was that?"

"That was kind of our equivalent to a castle," Midori explained, pointing at what was left of the large building. "We didn't have the fancy structures like a lot of worlds do. Ours tended to look like massive skyscrapers over anything else. This place used to be split into four territories, this being the smallest one, and each territory has their own ruler. Queen Lafuria was our ruler, of course she had her husband too, but he wasn't all that important even though he was the one born into the royal line. She only had a son, so whoever he would have married would have been the dominant ruler. That's how it works."

"It's different," Sora agreed. He shot around, panic flashing through him as he heard Kairi let out a small scream. She backed into his arms completely, her indigo eyes staring at a darkened doorway with fear. Sora followed her gaze and took a startled step back, seeing the shape of a human there.

"Don't go near it," Midori demanded, as if sensing that he wanted to go see if they were okay. "That's not real. Well it is, and it used to be a human, but it's not anymore." A frown appeared on her face before she asked, "What time is it again?"

"Bout 7:30," Goofy told her.

She looked extremely confused as she stared at the creature and it stared back. Hearing a bit of rustling, she looked around and saw a few more outlines appearing in doorways, hidden from the sun's rays. "Why are they waking up? They only get up just before nightfall and I don't—" She cut herself off, suddenly going pale.

"What? What's wrong?" Mickey asked with worry.

"It's December," she muttered, her face now portrayed panic. "Oh fuck, how could I forget that it's winter? We've got to get out of here. The sun goes down earlier in winter. Like, in half an hour. Sunsets happen fairly quickly here, usually within fifteen minutes or so. That's why they're waking up."

Sora eyed the creatures and asked, "How fast are they?"

"When hunting something, insanely fast," Midori replied.

"We'll never make it back to the ship in time," Donald realized.

"Midori, is there anywhere that's safe around here?" Mickey asked her.

She thought for a moment before nodding and saying, "Follow me, and we have to move fast."

The group rushed through the city, the sun visibly setting now. Midori led them to the large building, rushing through the crushed front door. Nearly the entire structure was made from glass, so the entire building was very bright and lit up, not a single creature in sight. Midori knew that this was misleading though, because there certainly were monsters living within the large structure. The only difference was that she knew how to avoid them. She led them to a spot that was lit up very brightly, and started to play with some of the decorations on the wall. A second later, a groaning sound fill the room as an incredibly thick door slid open. The sun's light poured into the hidden room, allowing everyone else to see that there was no one there. Midori motioned for them all to go in, and just as the sun was starting to disappear, she closed the door, sealing it shut.

"Won't they be able to get in?" Kairi asked fearfully.

"No, the controls to get in are very particular. Get it wrong and the entire thing locks up. Don't worry, we can still get out from this side but nothing can get in. I know for a fact that I'm the only one still alive that knows how to work the controls properly. I'm not sure if some of these creatures have gotten smarter or what or what they can do. The last I saw was that they were just wild over everything else. Rumor has it, or had it I guess, that they were getting smarter though. Able to open doors and windows and smart enough to lure people outside."

"What are they exactly?" Sora asked. "Like, are they man eating zombies or something?"

"Not exactly," Midori said with a smile as she lit the candles that were around the room. It was rather bit with several couches and chairs, as well as other rooms. Luckily for them, there was also a bathroom and a very tiny kitchen. Midori went and sat on one of the chairs and said, "They don't actually eat people. What they want is energy, in other words, people's life forces, their souls."

"Their souls?" Riku repeated in a rather surprised tone. He was waiting to hear that they were taking hearts or something, but an energy stealing being was something that they had never run across before.

"Their life force, their energy, whatever you want to call it," she repeated with a nod. "They capture people and start to drain the energy—their life force—from them. It doesn't involve eating them alive or anything else, but from what I saw, it's not just like falling asleep or when you're tired. It's extremely painful. People were researching them before the world really went to shit, and they believed that the creatures particularly like energy from those with pure hearts." Her eyes trailed over to Sora and Kairi, and she had to smile a bit as Sora held her a little bit tighter. "That's probably why you two noticed the feeling of being watched right away. Out of all of us, it's you two, particularly Kairi, and then I'd say Mickey, Goofy and Donald, and then me and Riku."

"Where did they come from?" Mickey questioned curiously.

"When the Organization showed up," she said with a shrug, "they did too. That was what? A few years ago now? I was acting as a bodyguard to the prince at the time, that's how I knew this was here. Anyway, the Organization was running around causing mayhem here and there was nothing we could do about it. Some people said it was something created by the Organization. I don't really know."

"When people get their life force drained, do they become one of them?" Kairi asked as she and Sora moved onto one of the couches.

"No," Midori said sadly. "They live for a little while, and then they just die. See, there were two types of people here eventually. Those who changed, and those who died. I was one of the lucky few to get away. After the Organization got to the prince, there was no point in me staying. Everyone else I cared were turned into monsters or dead, so I did the selfish thing and saved myself. By the end, only this place was left untouched in this region. There are a few safe zones in other places, but they're impossible to get in or out of now because creatures surround them."

"The Organization got to the Prince?" Riku seemed incredibly confused by this. "What was his name?"

She smiled a bit but ignored his question, "I was there when they got him, you know. There were Heartless there, and they went after the Prince. I tried to protect him but I got knocked out, when I came too, there was blood on the floor and he was gone. I only found out really happened to him later on. I wish I knew what happened to me when I was knocked out though."

"So, did you know Crysita then?" Mickey wondered aloud. "That would explain why you're so set on stopping her and the others."

Her eyes looked to the floor and said, "That's why I wish I knew what happened when I was knocked out. I woke up and she was just—there."

"Crysita was just th—holy crap," Sora said quickly, his eyes widening with surprise. He pointed at her and said, "I knew I knew you from somewhere! Or at least I had seen you somewhere else, but how?"

"I dunno," she answered while shaking her head. "I guess something happened. The Heartless got my heart or something but it messed up and came back to me or something. I seriously don't know. One minute, I'm protecting Prince Liramau, the next I'm waking up and he's gone and she's there."

"What are you guys talking about?" Kairi asked. Only Sora and Midori seemed to know what was going on, everyone else was left in the dark.

Midori reached into her pocket and pulled out a piece of paper, folding it out and saying, "This was a picture of Prince Liramau and I. I keep it with me so I always remember how I failed him so that I'll never fail anyone else ever again. Nothing can stop me from doing anything I have my mind set to."

Riku took it curiously and his eyebrow shot up as he asked, "You have black hair? Why'd you dye it? And why does he look so familiar?"

"I didn't dye my hair," she explained. "And I know exactly why he looks familiar. You spell his name L-I-R-A-M-A-U. Now add an x into it and jumble up the letters and you get M-A-R-L-U-X-I-A. The prince always did enjoy gardening. When I found this out, I not only killed his Heartless out of sheer anger of the ruthless creature he had become, but I destroyed his heart. Normally, when a heartless and a nobody are both destroyed, the original will return. I made sure that would never happen."

"It wasn't really you though, was it?" Sora asked. "Not really."

Midori slowly nodded and said, "Yeah, but I still feel bad."

"So, that explains why you really know so much about her," Sora said with a shake of his head. "And why I recognized you. Everything makes complete sense now. It also makes sense why she'd kept you captive and didn't kill you."

"Who? Crysita?" Riku asked. "What does she have to do with this? You guys were friends?"

"More," Midori said while looking at everyone else in turn. "I know more about her than anyone else, and she knows more about me than anyone else. That's because, like Roxas is Sora and Naminé is Kairi, Crysita is me."

**Author's Note**

For anyone who read the original, nothing should come as a surprise. For anyone who didn't…well surprise.

So who else got completely excited when they heard that Nomura was planning on going into the concept stage of KHIII really soon? I mean, it's only the concept stage, but it's still awesome news!

What's sad is that is definitely won't be out in the next two years. The 10 year anniversary from when KH first came out is in 2012 (or so I read) and Nomura wants to do something for it, but he says it definitely won't be KHIII because it wouldn't be done by then, even if they started now.

Anyone have any theories for what Kingdom Hearts 3DS means? Apparently when we see the title we'll get it automatically, and it won't necessarily be something that has a title involving a '3' a 'd' or an 's'. It's the third iteration of something, and I'm thinking it's the third freaking time you have to suffer through KHI AFTER the actual game itself. Chain of Memories, Coded and this one. And apparently though Sora and Riku are the playable characters, but it's not Sora that you become familiar with. What? That confuses me. Maybe they'll actually make Kairi fight or something? We knew Aqua was a playable character, but there were rarely any pictures or vids of her at all until closer to when BBS was release in Japan. So maybe? I dunno…

Anyway, all things set aside, you guys are all awesome reviewers! Thank you so much for reading this, I really appreciate it.

Thank you to Trainalf, shadowwolf547, Shire Folk, NRZWolf 13, Shifuni and Xorikma.

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	35. Remedy

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Thirty-Four - Remedy_

Kairi's eyes snapped open and shot towards the door. It was dark in the room, and knowing that the creatures moved in the dark made it frighten her a bit. Of course, she knew it was only dark because the candles had burned out and nothing more, but she couldn't help but be nervous. Why did everything want people with a lot of light in them? It almost made it seem worth it to be dark.

She shivered a bit, and Sora let out a small groan beside her. They were stretched out on one of the couches, his arms wrapped around her from behind, and they were under a thick blanket. It was freezing in the room that they were in, so all of them were under thick blankets that Midori managed to find. She had tried to get into the room with the bed that had been set aside for the prince, but the bed had been in pieces so they all stayed together in the same room. Luckily, Mickey and Donald were small enough to sleep on the chairs without much trouble, Goofy was stretched over the loveseat, and Riku and Midori took opposite ends of the sectional couch. Kairi wasn't sure why there were so many places to sit in the room, but she assumed that it was because none of the royal family wanted to chance having to stand or something.

Kairi felt Sora squeeze her a little tighter and mutter something in his sleep, but she couldn't hear what. She rolled over so that she was facing him and wrapped her arms around his body. She was so cold, but at the same time it was nothing compared to when they were in Deep Jungle. She supposed that it had more to do with the fact that she could sense the creatures lurking the hallways beyond the thick, protective walls and door. The creatures knew that they were there, and they were willing to wait for them to come out. It was the feeling of being hunted that made her so uncomfortable and stopped her from bring able to get to sleep. She didn't like the feeling of being potential prey, a potential victim…again.

Her mind began to wander as she remembered what Midori revealed earlier. All along, that was why she felt familiar. Kairi hadn't really seen all that much of Crysita, but at the same time she knew that Midori and Crysita felt almost the same. She was able to pinpoint the feeling easily now that she knew. Midori was definitely different though. She didn't have nearly as much darkness to her, but the thought that Crysita had come from her made Kairi a bit nervous. She was also confused, because as far as any of them knew, whenever a Nobody was created they looked identical to their original, the exception being Roxas and Namine. It wasn't strange that Crysita looked a little bit different from Midori, it was strange that Midori looked different from what she originally did.

Mickey had said that he never heard of that happening before, so he theorized that Crysita was something different all together. His idea was that she was only half of a Nobody for some reason, which would explain why Midori was still there as well, because she had half of the heart within her. Simply put, that made Midori part Nobody as well.

Riku had pointed out that it would explain why she didn't get emotional with most things but she was still able to feel some emotions. She had hit him in response.

Kairi knew that Midori was on their side, but at the same time she had always had bad experiences with most Nobodies. Sure, Naminé was part of her and Kairi liked Roxas as well, but at the same time Naminé had messed with Sora's memories and had honestly wanted him to forget about Kairi and just stay with her, and Roxas didn't want to help Sora wake up but stay as he was. Axel had kidnapped her, and no matter what Sora said about his sacrifice, all she could remember was his hand gripping her arm tightly, leaving an extremely nasty bruise, and how he had locked her away, giving her some food every once and a while. Still, in retrospect, she wished that she had never run away from Axel. Saïx had been there to capture her almost immediately. Pluto had run after her, and she was glad that he did. Unlike Axel, who had no interest in really harming her at the time, Saïx had hit her when she tried to get away from him, but she hadn't let that stop her. Eventually, he drugged her and threw her in the cell, not bothering to stop Pluto from running in after her. She had awoke with a headache and feeling incredibly dizzy, but Pluto had been there to keep her company and to keep her warm, so for that she was thankful for.

The others that had been there at the time hadn't been any nicer. The only one that hadn't really mocked her or anything was Demyx, but he had only seen her once before going off to do something and never coming back. She later learned that he had been destroyed by Sora at that point of time. Xaldin had given her extremely odd looks, as if trying to place her with a far-off memory, but for the most part he ignored her until he too was destroyed by Sora. That left Luxord, Xigbar, Saïx and Xemnas himself. She never actually dealt with Luxord and Xemnas herself, but Saïx had come to taunt her more than once, and Xigbar just came and stood there, watching her. It was incredibly unnerving, knowing that he was doing nothing but staring with a dark smirk on his face as if he knew something that she didn't.

Simply put, she didn't really have many good experiences with Nobodies outside of Roxas and Naminé, so knowing that Midori was part one (or, at least, Mickey theorized was a partial one) made her a bit nervous.

She suddenly felt Sora's hand move from her back, up to her cheek. Her eyes snapped up to his, seeing that he was awake. Well, he was sort-of awake. She could tell that he would probably fall asleep the second he let his eyes close, but he was forcing himself to stay away.

"What's wrong?" she whispered to him, not wanting to disturb anyone else.

He ignored her question, running one hand through her hair and the other started to rub her back gently. Sora kissed her forehead and whispered, "Go to sleep Iri."

She wanted to protest, but as his hand rubbed her back in soothing, circular motions, and the other stroked her hair softly, she found it hard to resist the call of sleep. She felt Sora pull him towards her, before kissing her on the forehead again. Soon, she was asleep.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

Riku woke up to a rustling sound. He yawned and rubbed his eyes before looking around, seeing that Mickey too was roused by the noise while Donald, Goofy, Sora and Kairi slept on. He turned and looked at the other part of the sectional couch, registering that Midori was gone, before looking over the back of the couch. Sure enough, the green haired girl was going through the cupboards, looking for something within them.

"What are you doing?" he asked with another yawn.

"I just remembered something," she said while casting a quick glance over her shoulder at him. "I've been looking everywhere for it, because I know it's still here and—ah ha!" She jumped off of the counter that she had been standing on, a jar of glowing, white liquid in her hand. She moved over to the table that was there, and placed it beside a series of other odd things.

Mickey shrugged off his blanket and got off of his chair, going over to see what she was doing. He glanced curiously at the book that was on the table, and asked, "What's this?"

"I had a sudden realization earlier this morning," Midori explained as he started to pull out pots, spoons, measuring cups and bowls. "A long time ago women were seen as witches here, and at first, as women came into power instead of men, it was believed that they were casting spells. That wasn't exactly true though. There were certain families that did have wiccans in their families though. They're like witches, but they worship and use nature to help people. Keep in mind that the definition of help is subjective. Some were good, and some were bad. Anyway, no matter which way you look at it, they made some incredible potions and herbal mixes from the things that grew in the wild here. Now though, these mixtures are all that's left. That book has potions in it you'd never even imagine. It was here in case it was needed when the royal family was locked in here."

"Really?" Mickey asked while climbing on one of the chairs to look at the book. "What do you plan on doing with it?"

She motioned to the book and said, "When I was little an entire pot of boiling water fell on my arm. I'm talking really hot water. Anyway, they took me to the healers here and they made a potion from that book. One that's so potent, it can heal the deepest stab wounds. It can save people from dying if administered in time. I don't know how to make the potions, but I thought maybe someone else could. If we can do it right, it should heal Sora's hands. Given how his hands would have already started healing a little bit on their own, he'll probably still have some scars, but he should be able to actually use his hands."

"Wow," Mickey said while flipping through the pages of the book, skimming it quickly, "some of these are amazing!"

She shrugged and said, "Then the book's yours. I can barely understand it. I did know what the ingredients were though, so I went looking for them. I knew that the royal family would have had all the ingredients they needed in here. It was just to see if they were broken or not. That's all of them though, so once we get out of here and find the stuff for the ship, we can heal his hands."

"You know, I was thinking, we're pretty close to Burning Embers right now, so maybe we should just head towards it. We don't know exactly what's wrong with the gummi, but we do know that we can fly the ship safely because Sora was able to steady and land it fine. Instead of trying to fix it here or turning around, getting it fixed and going out again. This way might add on an extra day or two, the other way we're probably looking at loosing two weeks, give or take," Mickey said.

"We'd be safe here in the gummi ship," Riku said. "Wouldn't we? I mean, we could fix it at day and then go back inside at night, right?"

"I'm not too sure," Mickey said hesitantly. "It almost sounded like they were trying to scratch through the cement around us. It's too thick though. It wouldn't surprise me if they could get through the hull of a ship."

"Yeah, and this place looks like it's been sucked dry of people except for probably in the safe zones, so the fact that we, especially Sora, Kairi and Mickey, are here will probably drive them to get through it. They'll probably be awake during the day actually, but they won't be able to get into the sunlight."

"Don't tell Kairi," Mickey said, his dark eyes shooting over to where the girl in question still slept peacefully with her boyfriend. "She was awake for most of last night. I couldn't get much sleep because I could hear them outside, but I think she could sense them. These creatures give off really weird auras."

"She wasn't always this afraid of things," Riku said with a sigh. "Before we tried to leave Destiny Islands, she was always willing to go into strange caves or try to approach weird animals. After we got back though, while she wasn't afraid, she was just a lot quieter, like she gave up trying to keep up with me and Sora and settled on being stuck in the sidelines. Now, after what happened, she's just so...paranoid."

"I can't say I blame her," Midori said with a shrug. "She's better though. She doesn't scream when you just show up anymore. She doesn't even cringe when you go near her."

"Come on guys," Mickey interrupted. "I didn't bring her up for you to gossip about. I just wanted you to know not to mention anything about the creatures. Lets get all this stuff packed up."

Both of them nodded and set to work, while Mickey turned around and stared at the couch. Sora cracked his eyes open, haven been awake for most of the conversation. Mickey had heard him, and looked over, noticing that he did not look impressed with them talking about Kairi. The boy shot Mickey a quick smile before settling on stroking the hair of the young woman in his arms.

Mickey looked down at the recipe for this specialized potion, not recognizing a few of the ingredients. If Midori said that she had them, then she probably had them. It was odd, now that Mickey knew what her secret was (he had known that she was hiding something all along), it actually made him trust her a little bit more. He really hoped that she was right and this potion would help Sora.

He suddenly heard a small scream with a loud thump, and looked around quickly. Sora and Kairi had tumbled onto the floor, Kairi lying on top of him with a rather stunned look and Sora smiling broadly. They were still wrapped in their blanket, and because they tumbled onto the floor, it was twisted around them looking more like a cocoon than anything else. Mickey just smiled and turned back to the book.

A little while later, once Donald and Goofy were up and Sora and Kairi were untangled, Midori assured them that it should be safe to go outside. The only thing they should be worried about was if it became too dark with clouds. Only direct sunlight, and not UV rays in general, affected them. Why? She had no clue, it was just the way things were.

The sunlight was intensely bright as they opened the door, but it wasn't the only surprise waiting for them. Kairi let out an odd sound as she saw the dead humanoid thing in front of them. It looked like its skin had burned off, which Midori said it probably had. The creatures were desperate it seemed, waiting until the last minute to leave.

They walked swiftly through the town, but not nearly as fast as Midori would have liked because most of them were weighed down with different things from the room. They had decided that taking some of the spare candles as well as the thick blankets was a good idea, so including the potion ingredients and the book itself, they had quite a few things with them.

Unfortunately, Midori was right about the creatures daring to brave the sun at the chance for their version of food. They didn't come into the actual sunlight itself, but many were awake, waiting in the shadows. They all made sure to stick to the bright sunlight and away from the shadows. Not only that, but there were clouds in the distance that Midori didn't like the looks of. They were dark and thick, meaning that the creatures would be able to move around more.

Suddenly, they heard a chuckling that turned into hysterical laughter. Midori felt the hair of her neck stand on end and she tried to ignore it, but the laughter soon turned into giggles while the voice said, "Midi, Midi, Midi, what is this? You're you but you're not you. You're more you than I am me, but you're not you."

"Go to the ship," Midori said through clenched teeth to everyone else. "She's trying to distract us until the clouds get here."

"Midi? Midi! Are you ignoring me? That's not very nice you know. Ignoring your older sister."

"What?" Riku exclaimed with surprise and whipped around. He looked and saw one of the creatures, this one with dirty black hair, gaunt skin and dull brown eyes.

"Riku, come on," Midori urged him on.

"He just wants to meet your sister Midi! That's all. Come over here so I can get a good look at you."

"Come on!" Riku looked around at her, surprised to see an upset look on her face, her eyes avoiding looking at the creature in front of them. She looked up at him and said, "If those clouds get here, we're all done for." She and Riku were the only ones who stopped, so everyone else was farther ahead. Sora in particular was rushing Kairi to go as fast as she could. The wind was picking up now, pushing the clouds closer faster.

"Midi! Midi! Oh you're a nasty thing, ignoring your sister. I won't forgive you, you know. Not ever!"

"Ignore her," Riku managed to say as they started to rush back. "Don't listen to a word it has to say."

The trek back to the ship was much faster, but that was because, by the end, everyone was running. The others were already on the ship when Riku and Midori got there. Riku secured the door while Midori made sure that all of the breakable jars wouldn't fall and break. They needed everything in them to cure Sora's hands properly.

Sora was sitting at the controls, insisting that, despite the thick bandages on his hands, he was the best flyer out of them so injury or not, he was probably the one that would be able to get them away at a second's notice.

Once everyone was sitting and secured in, Sora turned on all of the controls. He looked out the front window and said, "Oh shit."

Everyone else looked out and saw that the clouds had hidden the sun's rays and the creatures were rushing towards the gummi ship. Midori wasn't kidding when she said that they were extremely fast.

"Sora go!" Kairi yelled at him as she kicked the back of his chair. There was no doubt in her mind that her life was some combination of horrible clichéd teenage romantic comedy, a tacky dramatic action movie, and now a bad horror-suspense film too.

"The engines have to start up first," he snapped back, on edge as he watched the creatures get closer. "Do you really think I'm dumb enough to just sit here while they get closer for thrills?"

She glared at the back of his head, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"They're getting awfully close," Mickey said, staring at them.

"Systems are taking longer because someone had to drive the ship into a meteor shower," Sora said, and Donald shifted uncomfortably.

The creatures were close now, and just as they were about to reach the ship, all the systems finally came online and Sora managed to jerk the ship off of the ground roughly. They all heard a thump that they were sure was the ship hitting one of the creatures as they took off towards the atmosphere, only breathing evenly again when they were back in space with no meteors in sight.

Riku sighed in relief before turning to Midori while saying, "I think we deserve some sort of explanation. I know you gave us a bit of one, but now that we don't have to be worried about being eaten or something, I'd seriously like to know what the hell you were thinking about not telling us that Crysita was your Nobody? Or half of you. Or whatever she is."

"Riku," Sora snapped at him, "Can't that wait?"

"Until what Sora?" Kairi interrupted with a cross voice. "Until we mess up because we underestimated Crysita in some way that she could have helped us avoid?"

Before Sora could answer Mickey said, "Okay guys, stop it. I think we all need to get calm our nerves a bit. Get something to eat and get some peaceful sleep. We can take turns driving." Mickey knew that none of them had really slept the night before, even if they wouldn't admit it.

The tension in the air was thick, but Sora was the first to nod his head and said, "Alright. Who's first?"

"I'll stay here," Mickey said while motioning to the controls. "You guys go get something to eat or have a nap. Donald or Goofy will replace me later."

"Not Donald," Sora said with a sigh. "I'd like the ship to remain in tact."

"Like you've never crashed it before," Kairi muttered, causing Sora to stare at her with a slightly surprised look that shifted into a rather unimpressed one. He mumbled something under his breath as he watched her turn on her heel and go.

He could feel everyone's eyes on him as he walked after her. She didn't turn around to acknowledge is presence until they were almost by the rooms when she shot around and snapped, "What?"

"What's you're problem?" Sora asked her crossly. "I tell you that I'm not just being stupid and keeping us on the ground for kicks and you get all pissed at me. What did I do?"

"Well first, you didn't have to be such a jackass about it," she said. "Then you feel the need to stand up for her?"

"Why wouldn't I? Midori didn't do anything wrong."

"What makes her do different from Crysita? Why do you assume something can be easily split into good and evil? You and Roxas aren't. Naminé and I aren't. Hell, neither half of Ansem, Xemnas, Xehanort—whoever the fuck he was, were good. How do we know she's not really exactly like Crysita, just more—subtle about it? How do we know she's not part of that group? What if she knew that Jorix was going to take me? What if she—and you're defending her! You don't even know her and you're saying that she's not to blame!" Kairi's face turned bright red with anger at this point her time, tears welding up in her eyes.

"How do you know she's not exactly who she says she is?" Sora challenged her. "You're awfully paranoid and sensitive, and you're blowing this way out of propotion."

"Sensitive?" Kairi repeated, her voice rising octaves. "Sensitive? I'm sorry Sora for not trusting people that much! I'm sorry for not being so stupid and naïve as to assume the best about everyone! Maybe I should have just smiled at Jorix as he raped me because he was possibly a good guy with just a few issues."

"What the he—you know what Kairi, you're overreacting to this. Go and get some sleep."

"No," she said, crossing her arms in front of her. She knew that she was just being stubborn now.

"Kairi, I know you barely slept at all last night," Sora tried to reason with her. Admittedly, his voice was a little harsher than he intended, but he was starved, still on edge from almost becoming zombie food, tired, stressed and still in a bit of pain. He wanted to go back to that morning when he and Kairi were just lying together happily. They had both been exhausted, but happy.

"Sora," she said, stressing his voice with an annoyed tone, "you have no idea if she's really on our side and you're defending her. You are so goddamn stupid sometimes! You naïvely think that just because someone seems nice means that they are! Well you know what? That's not true!" By the end, she was screaming at him, her hands clenched into fists so hard that her nails were digging in and breaking her skin.

Sora, for his part, didn't look happy at all and snapped, "I'm being stupid? You think that everyone in the universe is out to get you! You're scared of your own fucking shadow! This isn't about Midori or trusting her at all. This is about you and you're insecurities about this entire thing. You say I assume a lot, well look at you! You're assuming a ton of things about me just because I didn't jump and agree with you or just because I wasn't completely nice to you once. Fuck Kairi, do you know what I would do for you? What I do do for you? I do everything in my power to keep you comfortable, safe and happy and the one time I let it slip a bit and you freak! How is that fair at all?" By that point of time both of their faces were red with anger, and they were both glaring at each other hotly.

"You—we—you," Kairi stuttered out, but Sora held up his bandaged hand and cut her off.

"Kairi, I just can't deal with this right now. When you're ready to talk about what's really bothering you without having some sort of bitch-flip come and find me," he said firmly before turning and walking away from her. He was angry, and it was certainly easy to tell, but he managed to stop himself from storming away like an angry child who had been denied the ice cream that they wanted. His mother's no-nonsense attitude towards hissy fits and slamming doors had taught him better than that. He did everything for Kairi, even admitting that he was whipped, but that didn't mean that he was going to let her walk all over him. Well, not all of the time. There was no real reason for her anger, at least not one that she had given him.

Okay, so maybe that was a bit of a lie. He knew she had some good points. He was a little naïve and too trusting, and he definitely wasn't the brightest crayon in the box. Still, it hurt to hear her say it. He knew he had some good points too though. He knew for a fact that he didn't deserve her anger because he snapped at her once. For being with her nearly all the times for months on end, he felt he was extremely patient with her.

Sora decided, as he moved into the kitchen of the gummi ship and rummaged around until he found a few dried fruit bars, that he wasn't going to go running back to her to apologize. He knew that she'd want him to, but he wasn't going to. It was most than just a pride thing or his stubbornness. Relationships were two-way streets, and no matter what whiny teenage girls though, or anyone else for that matter, it wasn't always the guy's fault and it shouldn't have to be on them to apologize for things they didn't even do. He would give her everything she wanted, an apology included, but this time it was her turn to give a little first.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

"This is an extremely difficult potion," Mickey said as they carefully finished brewing the complex concoction that was supposed to help Sora's hands. It had been several hours since they left the Forbidden World, and now Goofy was flying the gummi ship so Mickey decided to get to work on the potion to help Sora right away.

His eyes flickered from the book, to the brightly glowing potion and back. Unlike normal, bright green potions, this one was a glowing white with a mother-of-pearl sheen. He had checked it several times to make sure that they had followed the steps correctly, and while he was sure that they had, he was a bit reluctant to just offer it to Sora.

Midori had been watching silently as Mickey and Donald created the potion, as had Riku. The two hadn't bothered to talk about anything, so the silence between them was tense. Still, Riku couldn't help but stare oddly as she brushed her hair with a bright pink brush. He was sure she didn't own anything pink, and she had mumbled quickly that it was Kairi's and she had borrowed it before they went down to Forbidden World.

She moved forward a bit and finally broke the silence by saying, "It looks right though and I—" She cut herself off as a few strands of red hair fell into it. She caught their glare and said, "I don't think that's going to do anything to it. Besides, if it does, it's Kairi's DNA. I'm sure Sora won't mind. If they ever talk again."

"They will," Riku muttered before looking at Mickey, "that won't mess it up, will it?"

Mickey looked through the instructions and said, "No. Actually, it says here not to worry about a few strands of hair or flakes of skin. Happens quite frequently when making potions actually because fumes tend to make hair follicles looser. I wish we had something to test this on."

"Better leave it for Sora," Midori said. "He's going to need to drink some and put his hands in it so that it heals both inside and outside."

"This is probably going to hurt," Donald said with a nod. "Like iodine going on a cut."

"Probably," Mickey agreed.

"I'll go get him," Riku said as he stood up. "Might as well get it out of the way so that he's back up and going as soon as possible."

"What about Kairi?" Donald asked. They all knew that he was wondering if they should get Kairi as well. They had all heard them yelling at each other a few hours ago, and neither had bothered going to see the other yet. It had to be like some kind of record between them.

"We should leave her," Riku decided. "At least for now." He didn't say another word, instead just walking into the hall and towards the rooms. Kairi's door was firmly closed, but Sora's was open slightly. He didn't even bother knocking, and Sora didn't even flinch as he walked in.

"Come on. Get up and stop sulking."

"I'm not sulking," Sora snapped at him. "I'm brooding."

"Well stop brooding and come on," Riku said as he marched over to the bed and grabbed Sora's arm, dragging him away from the mattress. "We've got something to show you."

"What makes you think I want to see anything right now?"

Riku rolled his eyes and said, "I know the only thing you want to see is Kairi in as little clothing as possible, but this is...okay well it's not anywhere near as good as that but it's still good."

"You," Sora said while glaring at Riku, "Image. Your head. I want it out."

"Too late," the elder of the two replied with a laugh as t hey walked down the hall. "What can I say? I may not have feelings for her anymore beyond a brother-sister type thing, but I can't deny that I think she is hot. You're damn lucky that you're going to get to see her in her birthday suit." Sora suddenly looked a bit embarrassed, and Riku raised an eyebrow in disbelief as he asked, "You have already?"

Sora blushed and said, "Maybe once...twice...okay maybe a few more times. We did not have sex though!" He waved his arms around wildly at this, and his friend had to chuckle. Riku's laughter stopped as Sora said, "I would never push her into anything. I love her." It was kind of funny, admitting that to someone else when he had only told her once, and he doubted that she remembered because she had been torn between panic and sheer shock of what had happened to her.

Riku smiled a bit and said, "I know. You gonna apologize to her?"

"Why do we always have to apologize?" Sora asked with a sigh. "We could do nothing wrong, yet some girls would still get mad!"

"I dunno man," Riku said, "but I completely agree. Kinda like how you see in movies a girl sees her boyfriend kissing someone else but the boyfriend says that the girl threw herself at him but the girlfriend still doesn't believe him even though he's telling the truth! I mean, really? I'm no expert myself, and I'm no sappy ass like you, but if that's all it takes to pull someone apart, it can't be love anyway."

"I'll ignore the sappy ass comment," Sora said while elbowing him, "but you're right. It can't be. So, away from the super confusing topic of girls, what's going on?"

"Oh, we think we found a way to heal your hands most of the way," Riku said with a shrug as if it was no big deal. "Midori found a book with all kinds of weird potions and spells in it from her home, and Mickey looked it over. He said that they seemed legit so we made it. Well, he and Donald made it."

"Really? That's awesome!" Sora said excitedly. "My hands won't sting or have to be bundled in a billion layers of bandages!"

"And you'll be able to touch Kairi again."

The brunet glanced back and knew that Riku wasn't trying to sound perverted this time, but he couldn't help himself. "Dude, what we do in the shower is none of your concern."

Riku laughed for a moment before a stunned and slightly disgusted look appeared on his face and he asked, "Wait, you and Kairi have—"

"Hi Mickey!" Sora cried out happily as they moved into the room. Without waiting for an answer he looked at the glowing pot before him and asked, "Is this it?"

"Yup," Mickey said while hopping up on a chair so that he could see again. "It's a two way potion. You have to drink some and you have to put your hands in some."

"And then they'll be good?"

"Yes, but you have to keep your hands in it for quite a while. About twenty minutes or so," the mouse explained. "And it's probably going to hurt."

"Well, it can't be that bad," Sora replied with a small shrug. "If you're sure it's okay, I'm game."

"Okay." Mickey grabbed a ladle and scooped some of the white liquid into a glass, and Sora was glad to see that there were no chunks or anything in it. Donald had attempted to make potions one time when they ran out and couldn't find a place to get more. They had been desperate though, but even just tossing the potion onto their wounds had been disgusting. "Try to drink it quickly. Just pretend it's...milk."

"Warm, shiny milk," Donald added, as if that helped.

Sora grabbed the glass and started to chug it, but as the liquid hit his tongue and started to slide down his throat, he wanted to spit it all back out. It was burning his insides like he had decided to drink acid or something instead. He forced it down, but as he finished the glass he lurched onto the table. It felt like his stomach was being torn from the inside out. Suddenly, he felt nervous about sticking his hands in the strange concoction.

"Come on," Riku said to him encouragingly. "Just get it over quick." Sora saw his silver-haired friend wince at the sight of his badly burned hands after Mickey helped him take the bandages off, but he didn't say another word. Taking his friend's advise once Mickey gave him the go ahead, Sora quickly put his hands in the liquid.

There was a second as nothing happened before he suddenly tried to yank his arms away, but Midori and Riku grabbed him so that he wouldn't jerk away.

"Holy fuck," Sora swore as his eyes squeezed shut. "This hurt s worse than when it got burned in the first place!" The string of coloruful curses that left his mouth would have made Jack Sparrow proud. Riku was holding onto Sora tightly to keep him there, as was Midori, because he kept trying to jerk away but according to the book he needed to keep his hands submerged.

"Go and get Kairi," Riku said to Midori. "I can hold him down until you get her. She'll calm him down some."

Midori knew that Kairi probably wouldn't be that happy to see her, but she nodded her head and went to find her anyway. She didn't have to go far though, because Kairi was standing in the hallway outside of the kitchen, her face pale and her eyes wide.

"Kairi?" Midori said slowly. "Are you okay?"

"What's happening?" she asked fearfully. "Why is he in so much pain?"

"We found a way to cure his hands for the most part. The downside is that it's extremely painful. I was just coming to get you. See, he keeps trying to get away from the pain, which is completely natural, but Riku thinks that you might be able to calm him down."

Kairi looked at Midori for a moment before pushing passed her and rushing to Sora's side. She moved close to him, resting one hand on his arm and the other on his back. Neither of them said a word, but Sora became visibly calmer. Riku knew that, in a way, Sora was trying to be strong in front of Kairi again.

Finally, Mickey nodded his head and Sora pulled his hands out of the potion. As he did, it suddenly turned into a deep black colour.

"That's why you couldn't take your hands out," Midori explained. "It's a one time potion. You're skin will be a bit sensitive for a bit, and you're stomach will probably hurt for a while."

"Don't try to eat anything either," Donald added. "You'll just throw it back up."

"Can he have pain killers or anything?" Kairi asked, her worried eyes never once leaving his sweaty face.

"No," it was Mickey who answered, "it says in the book that they'll be useless."

Kairi nodded and said, "Come on Sora." She took his arm and pulled gently, wanting him to follow her. He did so silently, not saying a word as they walked into her room and he sat on her bed while she closed the door.

She came to his side and very gently, she took his hand into hers. Sora expected it to hurt, but instead his hand just felt overly sensitive to Kairi's soft hands. She seemed to sense that he wasn't in pain, so she began tracing the scars that were left behind. Silence fell in the room until Kairi said, "I'm sorry."

"Me too," he replied. There was nothing else said between them because they didn't need to say anything else. Kairi moved so that she was lying back on her bed and pulled Sora with her so that his head was actually resting on her shoulder. She closed her eyes, smiling a bit as she felt his warm breath on her neck. Now she knew why he liked holding her like this. It was easy to tell that the other was alright.

**Author's Note**

Anticlimatic, yes. Important at the moment? No. Important later on? Well...yes. Enough said.

These chapters might seem a bit repetitive, but when you think about it, what part of KH ISN'T repetitive. Go to a world, happen to run into the main character, help out main character, fight the bad guy, leave. Rinse and repeat for best effect…and to finish the game.

And if anyone asks, no, I'm not done being a bitch to Sora. I let them cure him here but it's not going to last long. My reasoning behind constantly writing him as being hurt fairly badly is simple in the pursuit of character growth. If he can't fight because he's injured then, for example, it would make Kairi rise to the occasion to fight for him, especially if she's trying to protect him. There is some logic behind almost everything I write and there are reasons for it, but sometimes you don't see it until later on…much later.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed! I know I write it in every chapter, but I really do appreciate it. Tank you to Trainalf, NRZWofl 13, Shifuni, Chairman LoneStar, KaUiA, shadowwolf547, xlittleyingfax, and Shire Folk.

Who's excited for Re:Coded? Coming out January 14th in North America and Europe! I'm pumped cause it's three days after by b-day so hopefully I can con some money from my mother so I don't have to pay for it. Lol.

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	36. Everything Burns

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Thirty-Five – Everything Burns_

"_You know," _Roxas said to Sora, _"it figures that Marluxia would be a flower loving prince who needed a female bodyguard."_

"There's nothing wrong with a female bodyguard," Sora replied, but the amusement was still there.

"_Besides the point. I'm starting to think that he was actually supposed to be a girl, but someone realized that two girls trying to overthrow a male dominated group and failing would probably insult a lot of people so they turned him into a guy,"_ Roxas said. Needless to say, Sora found this extremely amusing and no one else was sure why he was laughing.

Kairi spent a great deal of time touching Sora's hands lately. She found it incredibly odd that he wasn't wearing gloves, and his hands felt different thanks to the scars that now ran along them from the burns. He found it strange that she seemed fascinated with his hands, and Riku joked about her having a hand fetish.

Her reply to that was to look at him with a sly grin before saying, "Well, you know what they say about guys with big feet and big hands. And I gotta say, Sora's hands and feet are bigger than yours." Sora had found this absolutely hilarious too and Roxas commented that they had taught her well.

Midori had been fairly quiet. Riku had been the one she spoke to the most before, but now they rarely ever had a full conversation at all. Riku wasn't bluntly ignoring her (well, he was, but not all of the time), but he wasn't going out of his way to talk to her either. She had tried to talk to him once, and he had snapped that she should have told them earlier on.

Midori was sick of Riku treating her like something he had scraped off the bottom of his shoe, so she stormed into his room one morning when he was at his most vulnerable, when he was waking up and trying to hide himself because the rooms were all so hot lately that he tended to sleep naked. She had discovered this once by accident, and now she was taking it to her advantage.

"I'm not leaving," she said, folded her arms in front of her chest.

"There's this thing called privacy—"

"No," she snapped sternly, and Riku actually stopped talking. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the picture of her and said, "Yes, that was me when I was whole. I know something messed up because when I woke up I had green hair. Unless Crysita woke up first had decided to play stylist."

"I don't understand what you could be though," Riku said honestly. "I hung around the Organization for a while and apparently none of them really changed. You're not a Nobody, but you're not...real either."

"I'm not real?" she repeated, anger lacing through her voice. "If I punched you in the face and broke your nose that would be real. I am real Riku. Maybe not completely human, but real. Nobodies, they are real too. Not necessarily, but real. I've known that for a long time, because I hung around the Organization for a while too. Well, not me, but Crysita."

This caught Riku's attention, causing him to tilt his head in an almost Sora-like gesture. His suspicious gaze wasn't lost on her, so she said, "She got her whole universal domination idea from Xemnas. He never just wanted to become human again. He wanted to rule everything. He wanted to bring darkness to everything. She took his ideas and left before even Roxas did. She was number fourteen."

"I had heard rumors about a fourteenth," Riku admitted slowly, his mind flashing back to the time when Sora was asleep and he was wandering around trying to keep track of what was going on. He remembered being at Beast's Castle, and he vaguely remembered seeing a figure in an Organization that was shorter than the rest but definitely not Roxas. Glancing at Midori, he took in her features to see if they would match. She definitely was shorter than him despite being older. Actually, she was probably just a little bit taller than Kairi. It could have been her, he decided, but something didn't quite match up in his head. Of course, he barely remembered that. "I didn't think it was true."

"Oh yes, happy old Crysita was in the Organization," Midori said bitterly. "I see her memories from time to time. It's never at the time, usually when I go to sleep, but I still see them."

There was a silence between the two before Riku's eyes widened and he said, "Wait, you see her memories? Tell me, can you sense her?"

"What?"

"Try finding Crysita."

She closed her eyes for a moment before she said, "I don't know where she is but I can feel her."

"Oh shit," he said with alarm running through his voice. "Oh fucking hell."

"What?" Midori asked, eying him as if he was a crazy person. She quickly looked away as he jumped up, just barely remembering to wrap his sheet around his waist.

"You don't get it," Riku said. "If you can feel her and see her memories what's stopping her from seeing yours? It might not affect us right at the moment, but what if she can and saw everything that we've been doing? You know where we're planning on going, so maybe she does too."

She stared at him and said, "Well, what can we do about it?"

Riku opened his mouth to answer and closed it again. He stared at her for a moment before saying, "We change our plans, and we don't let you know exactly what's going on."

She seemed hesitant for a moment before saying, "If that's what it takes, then let's do it."

**VVVVVVVV**

Sora had been reading (_'Shut up Roxas, I can read for fun too'_) sitting on one of large, comfortable armchairs in the lounge when Kairi came into the room wearing only her pajamas. She yawned and rubbed her eyes before they landed on him.

"Looks like Sleeping Beauty is awake," Sora said jokingly. He moved his book to the side after folding one of the pages, and Kairi instantly moved so that she was sitting on his lap. She was silent, only letting out a small yawn again, before taking his hand into one of hers and running the fingers of her other hand over it. Sora watched her for a moment and frowned before asking, "You okay?"

Kairi nodded her head and said, "Why did you get up so early? I felt you leave."

"I dunno. I was just restless and you were sleeping so peacefully that I didn't want to bother you. I've been awake for a while. Went through Mickey's kick ass training simulator for a bit," he admitted while running his free hand up and down her back. To be quite honest, Sora was sure that he was suffering from a form of cabin fever. It had only been two days since escaping Forbidden World, but he was still all twitchy and eager to get out there again and fight.

"I didn't have any nightmares," she said suddenly. "Even after you were gone. I thought I would at first you know, but your bed is just so comfy that I didn't want to leave it so I just stayed there and I just tried to focus on happy things and I don't know, I just didn't have a nightmare. Maybe when we get home I should just try stealing your blankets or your clothes or something."

Sora laughed at her excited voice and said, "If you want to steal my blankets you can have 'em. I'm sure I can part with a few shirts too."

"That's good, cause I was gonna take them no matter what you said," she replied happily, leaning forward and kissing him on the cheek. She curled up a and leaned on him in silence for a moment before frowning and saying, "You smell."

"Wow, rude as fuck Iri."

"You do!" she cried out, throwing her arms in the air dramatically. "You said yourself that you were in the simulator earlier and then you just came here so you probably went in before taking a shower, got covered in sweat and just came here to let it settle. You need a shower!"

Sora was about to reply when they saw an annoyed Midori stomp by the door. They listened in silence when they heard her shove open a door roughly before slamming it behind her, Riku's startled cry reaching their ears. They were silent for a moment before Kairi said, "Shower, now."

Sora suddenly moved his hands so that they were resting on her rear before managing to stand up. She let out a small scream of surprise as her hands latching around his neck tightly and her legs gripping around his waist. Her sudden movement caused Sora to stumble and they ended up crashing into the wall. Kairi let out an 'oof' from the force of being sandwiched between the wall and Sora, but she didn't get the chance to say anything as Sora silenced her with a deep kiss.

At first she playfully resisted him, smiling slightly against his lips. He didn't acknowledge her resistance though, just kept on kissing her, and suddenly a wave of panic flashed through her. She could hear Naminé trying to calm her down, but all she could think about was Jorix trapping her on the wall and then—

Sora suddenly pulled away, looking at her with alarm. She hadn't realized that she had tensed right up, tears welding up in her eyes, and had been whispering for him to stop, even against his lips. He quickly let her down as she hugged herself tightly and let her tears fall silently.

Kairi watched as his hands rose and fell several times, and she knew that he wanted to hug her and comfort her, but he wasn't sure if he should touch her. She could see the slightly hurt look on his face as well, and instantly felt bad. This wasn't someone trying to hurt her. It was someone she loved trying to be affectionate with her. Kairi reached out and took his hands in hers and whispered, "I'm sorry." She didn't know why it had happened. She hadn't had an episode like that in a while now. Hell, not even minutes before she had been so excited because she hadn't had any nightmares even without Sora there the night before.

"It's okay Iri," Sora mumbled as he gently pulled her close. He felt horrible. He had let himself get carried away and he had hurt her. He never wanted to hurt her. "Everything is fine. I promise."

**VVVVVVVV**

"Burning Embers," Mickey said while looking down at the world below them. "One of the shards of Twilight's Destiny."

"Lovely place," Midori said warily, her eyes glazing across the surface of the world they hovered over. It didn't look like there was any vegetation on the world at all, only rocks and fire and lava.

"Could we even breathe if we went there?" Riku asked curiously. "There's no plants, so no oxygen."

"How are there fires then?" Kairi pointed out. "They won't burn without oxygen."

"So it's coming from an unknown source somewhere," Sora reasoned. "Not the weirdest thing we've ever seen. Maybe just one or two of us should go out first though." His eyes flickered to Kairi before he added, "Just in case."

"I suppose that makes sense," Mickey agreed. "Then they can just stand a little bit away from the portal in case the air isn't breathable."

It was voted that Goofy and Riku would go out first. They were only gone for a few minutes before coming back. Riku explained that they could breathe, but they probably shouldn't stay too long because of all the smoke and ash in the air. Sora expressed worry about Kairi going but she just rolled her eyes and said that she didn't have breathing problems and if anything, they should be worried about him because he just seems to attract pain recently.

Riku pointed out that both of them seemed to attract more pain that anyone else. He also advised everyone to be cautious, because there was a chance that Crysita would know that they were in this world, and from the looks of it, it wouldn't be hard to do one of them in by knocking them into a lava pit or something. He told everyone else that Midori wasn't to be told anything about their plans for now on, telling him that it's possible her Nobody-ish-type-thing would know where they were by looking into her dreams.

Kairi, while warming up to Midori a bit again, seemed instantly wary after she found out about this development. She did have to smile a bit when Riku suggested blindfolding her. The green-haired girl pointed out exactly how stupid that sounded, and then Riku pointed out that he had done it for nearly a year. Kairi added that he had been an emo though. Riku and Midori ended up getting into a rather light-hearted argument about who could fight blind better. Mickey suggested leaving the two of them on the ship to get their search over with, and that was exactly what they did.

"Thanks for waiting," Riku said as he and Midori caught up to the rest.

"We didn't want to have to deal with you," Sora replied with a shrug.

"I don't like this world," Donald muttered. "Why would anyone put a gate to an important world here?"

"Why not?" Mickey asked with a shrug. "This is a place where people wouldn't be able to stay for very long periods of time, and it's possibly surrounded by fire and lava."

"Great, I bet it's floating over a massive river of lava or something," Donald grumbled angrily.

"Don't worry Donald," Sora said with a wide smile. "We won't turn you into a roasted duck."

"That's right," Riku agreed. "We don't have the right seasoning."

Midori, Sora, and Riku all laughed while Donald folded his arms in front of him and Kairi shook her head. Mickey remained indifferent to the conversation but they saw a small smirk on his face and Goofy just looked confused. They continued wandering around the world, hoping that whatever they were looking for would jump out at them. The air was thick and hot, and soon they all found themselves sweating and breathing heavily. All of them were in good shape, but this was ridiculous.

"Are you sure there isn't anything you can turn us into?" Kairi asked Donald after a few minutes. "It's so hot."

"No," the duck said after a moment of thought. "I could put shields of ice around us though."

"That won't work," Sora said, giving Donald a very odd look. "We'd have to wait for it to melt to keep moving."

"_If it makes you feel any better, I have amazing air conditioning in your head,"_ Roxas joked.

"I'll give you air conditioning!" Sora said aloud, causing everyone to stare at him oddly.

"Sora, you're talking to yourself," Goofy observed.

"No, I'm talking to Roxas," Sora said with a shrug. He shrugged off his zip up shirt, and everyone watched as he shoved it into the pockets that were attached to his pants.

"Sora can fit everything into his pants," Kairi said with a shrug. Donald and Goofy were used to him shoving a billion things into the pockets, but no on else had really seen him shove such a big thing in them before.

Midori giggled a bit, catching Kairi's eyes as she said, "He can fit everything in his pants, huh?"

Kairi blinked and stared at her with confusion before a bright red blush appeared on her face. She mumbled under her breath and caught up to Sora. The two weren't standing extremely close or holding hands or anything though, because it was just too hot to be all over someone.

Riku rolled his eyes at Midori, having caught the exchange.

Sora carefully climbed up one of the rocky hills ahead of them, looking around the world in wonder.

"_Axel would have loved it here," _Roxas commented. _"It'd be so easy to set of a massive fireworks display. Or a display of anything explosive. He did that for us once, up on the train station tower in Twilight Town."_

'Us?' Sora asked him, not speaking out lout this time, nor pointing out the obvious danger of setting off explosives or fireworks off of the top of a very high train station.

"_Yeah. Me, him and-" _Sora could feel Roxas' confusion before he hesitantly said, _"It must have been Crysita. Seems out of her character though. Maybe she wasn't as batshit crazy then. There was a girl though, and it definitely wasn't Larxene. By that point of time you had taken both Larxene and Marluxia out, so we can't say I'm mistaking him for a girl."_

'Probably Crysita,' Sora agreed. 'Funny how you don't have those memories anymore though.'

_"No kidding," _Roxas agreed.

Everyone else had stopped for a moment at the base of the hill, taking a moment to nibble at some ice shards Donald had created. Kairi looked up at her boyfriend and said, "Sora, come get some ice."

He was about to go back down the hill when he froze mid-step. He heard some shuffling, but as he turned around he felt something slam into his stomach, knocking the wind out of him and causing him to slid down the hill, skidding painfully over the sharp, warm rocks and gravel that covered the ground.

"Sora!" Kairi screamed and tried to rush to his side. Midori grabbed her arm though, not letting her run. Kairi's sudden worry for Sora made her act irrationally, but Midori wasn't about to let her run into danger.

Sure enough, what seemed like dried out, petrified wood burst out of the ground in a spiral, and when it vanished, an imposing figure with only one arm was standing there.

Sora quickly got up, ignoring any discomfort that he had from his stomach. There would be a bruise later, but he had much worse. It was definitely just a tiny bump and not any sort of real injury. His Keyblade appeared in his hands and he went on the defensive.

"Sarlio," Midori growled angrily. He cast her a quick glance before turning his attention to Sora.

He observed how the brunet tensed up a little more, like a rattlesnake waiting to strike. It was like backing a wounded animal into a corner, and Sarlio knew that striking too quickly would cost him.

"I'm not here for playtime," Sarlio said loudly. He pointed his club at Sora and said, "You are going to come with me. Do that, and I won't kill them. Resist, and they're dead."

"Like you can beat all of us!" Riku seemed to appear out of nowhere, Way to Dawn coming down towards Sarlio's head. The attack was intercepted by Sarlio's weapon, but their enemy had to keep on his guard as Mickey lunged at him from the other direction. The two of them distracted their enemy as everyone else rushed to Sora.

"Are you okay?" Kairi asked him, worry evident in her voice. She knew how painful it was getting hit in the stomach.

"I'm good," Sora replied with a confident nod, not even feeling winded anymore. He was about to say something else when several Dusks appeared out of nowhere. They jumped at Mickey and Riku, pushing them away from Sarlio.

The man in question turned his attention to Sora, Kairi, Midori, Donald and Goofy. Though Sora prepared to strike, he wasn't able to as his friends crowded in front of him protectively.

"You're not taking him!" Donald exclaimed loudly.

"That's right!" Goofy agreed. They both shot towards Sarlio, but again, several Nobodies appeared between them and their target, forcing them to deal with that problem instead.

Kairi and Midori stayed in front of Sora, despite him saying that it was okay. They had already summoned Twilight and Oathkeeper, Midori keeping her Keyblade in a more offensive rather than Kairi's defensive stance.

"You're not taking Sora," Kairi snapped at him, repeating Donald's words.

"Who's going to stop me? The pretty princess? Or the other half of our leader? Right. Women are weak. Crysita wouldn't even be anything without the rest of us. All the lesser sex is good for is cooking, cleaning, lying back and letting us have our way with them, and popping out kids. Like your bitch for example. (He nodded at Sora). She wants to play knight, but all she's good for is a quick fuck."

Kairi's face didn't turn into a look of fear at his wandering eyes, knowing that he was doing it on purpose. Instead her face contorted into a look of pure rage as she said, "You want a bet?" Before he could block her with Dusks like he did to everyone else, she brought her Keyblade down on him. He grunted with surprise, managing to block the weapon just before it made contact with his head. He kicked her back, only to have to block Midori's attack. It was an almost mirror battle to his short one with Riku and Mickey before.

Sora felt a wave of affection pass through him, but not just for Kairi. It was for all of his friends, who were willing to risk everything for him. He quickly launched into the fray, noticing that twice as many Nobodies were appearing. Kairi and Midori were still fighting Sarlio, but the rest of them were forced to deal with the attacking Nobodies.

Riku was distracted when he heard a small scream from Midori. She stumbled backwards, skidding down a hill, just managing to stop herself before she would have been burned from the heat of the lava. Now Kairi was fighting Sarlio alone, and though Riku couldn't tell exactly what he was saying, he knew that Sarlio was trying to psyche Kairi out, probably bringing up her rape. Sora was surrounded by Nobodies and didn't notice, so Riku was the one to help her this time. Kairi was knocked to the ground, and he got there just in time to stop the attack.

Sora looked around him, realizing that he wasn't surrounded by Dusks anymore. Instead, Samurai Nobodies crowded around him, all standing still and straight. He breathed heavily, sweat pouring down his face as he looked from one enemy to the next. It was harder to breathe in this world, and the air was insanely hot.

"_Samurais usually only attack one at a time,"_ Roxas said to him. _"Sor, you're exhausted. We already know that your physical injuries somehow don't affect me, so let me take over. We can switch back and forth to keep us both going. I used to control these things. Maybe I can still do it."_

"Worth a shot," Sora muttered. There was a flash of pale blue light as Sora vanished and Roxas was standing in his place. Instead of Ultima in his hand, Roxas had Oblivion and Two Become One in his hands.

The Samurai that had been approaching suddenly stopped, staring at Roxas. They stared at each other for a moment before Roxas said, "Um...destroy those Dusks?" Without a second glance, the Samurai's turned around and started slashing at the weaker Nobodies.

"_Well shit," _Roxas heard Sora say. _"They listen to you."_

"Yeah, but the other Nobodies will fight back, and if he summons other types there are some that can definitely take these guys. We've got to finish him."

Nobody else had noticed Roxas' appearance. Not even Kairi and Naminé. The girl in question, and Riku, had actually lost sight of Sarlio in the flurry of Nobodies that appeared.

Roxas saw something shifting to his side and quickly moved, dodging out of the way as Sarlio appeared. The man looked at him with confusion, not quite sure who the blond was. In all fairness, he had seen Naminé, but he hadn't seen Roxas before. Still, Sarlio seemed to be nearly the twice the size of Roxas, so he didn't let his confusion at seeing this blond person was last long. He slammed his club down, but Roxas caught it between his two Keyblades. Sarlio backed off, snarling before rushing back towards Roxas.

The two slashed at each other, blocking and dodging when they could. Sora could feel the strain in Roxas' arms from Sarlio's overwhelming strength as Roxas blocked his weapon. He stumbled back, but instead of falling to the ground, Roxas managed to roll and stand up again.

Mickey easily defeated several Dusks in one hit, but as they vanished and he got a clear view of the fight, he froze. His eyes widened, and he would have been attacked from behind, but Kairi managed to get the Nobody before it got him. His gaze was locked on to Roxas, nothing short of intense surprise in them.

Kairi looked around to see what Mickey was looking at, and smiled a bit before muttering, "Roxas."

"Roxas?" Mickey repeated as he finally started fighting their enemies again. "That's Roxas? Are you sure?"

"Yeah, a hundred percent sure. Why?"

Mickey didn't answer because he wasn't sure how to answer it. When he pictured Sora's Nobody, he had first pictured someone who was identical to Sora (as most Nobodies were), but then he heard that Roxas had blond hair, so he pictured Sora but blond. The fact that he was seeing someone who looked exactly like _him_ stunned Mickey. The mouse listened closely, and realized that even his voice sounded the same. It had been years since he heard that voice, but there are some things that a person just never forgets.

Sarlio seemed to have realized that he was fighting the Keyblade Master's Nobody. The one Crysita had mentioned. Sarlio grinned, realizing that the Nobody probably had the same weakness as the Somebody. Realizing this, Sarlio slammed his club into the ground and old, dried up roots started shooting out everywhere.

Roxas avoided this easily, giving his opponent an almost cocky look, which Sarlio only smirked at. There was a split second before a startled scream caused him to look around.

Kairi felt sheer panic flash through her as the dried wood somehow managed to wrap around her, forcing her hands to her sides so she was unable to use her Keyblade. Kairi felt her horror creeping up, unable to clear her thoughts.

"_Kairi,"_ Naminé yelled in her head. _"Listen to me! Let me take over! It'll be okay! Just let me take over!"_

Kairi was split in two, half of herself trying and failing to fight off the panic attack that threatened to consume her as flashbacks of begin held to a wall of stone, helpless, assaulted her. The rational part agreed with Naminé.

Sarlio wasn't paying attention to the girl, despite the fact that he was right in front of her with everyone else facing them, the battle having paused. He grinned and said, "Look Keyboy, here's the deal. Come with me, and she goes free. Don't, and she's coming with me and I'll make what Jorix did to her seem like bliss."

Roxas was angry, there was no doubting that, but the sheer rage that bubbled up from Sora was incomparable. Roxas had to keep him down, telling him that he would take care of it. At the moment, the Nobody was in a more rational state of mind. Suddenly, he saw a pale yellow flash of light behind Sarlio, and he let his eyes wander over for just a second. It was a long enough look to realize that Naminé was the one being held by the wood, but quick enough that Sarlio didn't notice. She wasn't traumatized in the way Kairi had been, so she was able to remain calm in the situation and actually looked a little angrier than anything else.

"No? Really? Well in that case—" Sarlio moved his hand towards the leg that he thought was Kairi's. Her legs were only loosely bound, because he had been expecting her surprise and panic to keep her subdued. What he wasn't counting on was Naminé to get her leg loose and kick him in the head as he touched her.

"Get your greasy hands off of me," she snarled at him, in an extreme contrast to her usual very calm and quiet self. Her friends with in danger, and she wasn't about to be just shut and quiet now.

Sarlio was effectively surprised, giving Midori the chance to break the wood holding Naminé, who stumbled to the ground but managed to catch her footing. It was a pretty impressive feat, because she was wearing a pair of sandals and they were standing on sharp stones and gravel. Midori helped her get away just in time before the club slammed into the spot where their heads had been moments before.

He seemed to go almost insane after this, like seeing his plan b fail destroyed any mental barriers he had. None of his attacks were thought out, instead rather wild and desperate. His club started to splinter, but it wasn't repairing itself, making the weapon more dangerous than before.

Riku tried to stop the raging bull, but the splitering club slammed into the side of his face. He barely managed to stay conscious as he felt the wood dig into his skin dangerously close to his eye. Midori got to his side quickly to look at it, and once she was sure that he wasn't in danger of loosing an eye, she said, "Whatever you do, don't fall asleep. Or I'll throw you to some fan girls. Got it?"

He nodded weakly.

Sarlio swung rapidly at everything, destroying even some of his own Nobodies that he brought. He didn't care who he hit. Goofy ended up getting bashed in the back of his head, but like he had stated many times before, he had a hard head and it took a lot to injure him.

Donald and Mickey, however, were hit hard. Donald slumped to the ground, a bit of dark red tinting the feathers on his head, and Mickey was thrown into a large, hot rock, slumping to the ground.

The enemy brought the club towards Roxas, but it never met its mark. Sarlio let out a choking sound and the club limply fell from his hand. He looked down and saw blood start to seep from his wound and turned slowly just after the weapon used to stab him was pulled out. Naminé stood behind him, looking torn between being stunned or proud of herself. There was a Keyblade in her hand tinted with the same, red colour as their enemy's blood.

Sarlio laughed insanely at the irony. The quiet, rather useless princess was the one to kill him. Not even her, her Nobody who seemed even quieter and even more useless. A woman had beat him.

Crysita would certainly have something to look forward to when she looked through Midori's mind that night. He slumped to the ground, not fading away though. The body stayed there.

"What did I just do?" Naminé asked, her eyes wide as the Keyblade vanished in a flutter of white sparks. "I—I actually killed him."

Roxas approached her cautiously before placing his hands on her shoulders and saying, "You did what you had to do. Look at what he did to Donald and Mickey. Look at the cut on Goofy's head and the splinter's in Riku's face. How about Midori's burns? Kairi's panic or Sora's exhaustion? If you didn't stop him, he would have killed us."

She nodded slowly, but still looked at the bloodstain on her white dress with a disbelieving stare.

Goofy moved over and picked up Donald and Midori hoisted a semi conscious Mickey up. Though Riku resisted a bit at first, he finally gave in and allowed Roxas to help him.

Midori looked at all of them and said, "Looks like we need to go back to the gummi ship to heal up before searching more."

"The gate's not here," Naminé said with a shake of her head, though her voice was still soft, shocked from what she had done earlier. "He wouldn't have been demanding Sora to go with him. It's not here."

Roxas squeezed her shoulder gently with his free hand as he helped Riku walk with his other side. They walked back to the hidden warp point, not a person without some sort of scar, and he suddenly said, "So, I'm passing out as soon as I get back. I'm exhausted."

"Me too," Naminé agreed. "Probably because we're not used to being on our own fighting." She knew that she'd have to talk to and comfort a still shaken Kairi later on before that.

"Probably," Roxas agreed. He wanted nothing more than to find a nice quiet place in Sora's mind to sleep in. Yes, such a place actually did exist. Then, as if reading Naminé's mind, he asked "Think Kai's gonna be okay?"

"She's passed out, even in here right now," Naminé admitted hesitantly. "She freaked. I can't say I blame her. I was there for that. I'll go into her room, just so she doesn't panic if she wakes up and there's a guy beside her."

"Think it put her back some?"

Naminé thought about this, realizing that everyone else was listening with interest. She sighed a bit, shook her head and said, "I dunno yet. I hope not. I'll talk to her when she's up again."

Roxas nodded. He really hoped that Kairi would be alright. Sora was strong, but he didn't know if Sora was strong enough for her to go back to the fearful, sobbing, frightened girl she had been after Jorix had taken her.

He really _really _hoped that she would be alright.

**Author's Note**

I know there are a few things I have to explain here.

**IMPORTANT:** When I wrote the original of this, we had no idea who the fourteenth member of Organization XIII was. No face, no name, nothing. All we knew was that it was a girl. So Midori and Crysita were created before we knew anything about Xion. That's why Midori says Crysita was 14, and why Xion isn't here. I didn't want to change this part from the original, and you'll see why down the line. This is one of those things you just nod your head to.

Two Become One – Before this Keyblade was known as Acrossing of Two. Two Become One is the official English name is was given in 358/2 Days so that's what I'm using. I think I used the other one before, but just go with this for now on. As opposed to the original Shadows of a Dream, this one is going to be Roxas' main Keyblade.

As always, thank you to my awesome reviewers! You guys are great!

Holy crap, my reviews are at 123 right now. Screen capping cause that's an awesome number! Some people get more reviews than I do but I don't even care. I just realized, looking at the stats, that this is already longer (word count wise) than anything I've ever written before. Even longer than Shadows of Reality and that has like 8 more chapters than this does (at the moment). That's just how much I love you guys, I feel like putting extra work in. lol

Anyway, now that I'm done being distracted, thank you to Trainalf, Shifuni, xlittleyingfax, shadowwolf547, jamrulz, BlackWhiteZangetsu, and NRZWol 13. You guys are awesome!

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	37. Dying To Live Again

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Thirty-Six – Dying To Live Again_

Sora stared up at the white ceiling in his room, unable to fall asleep no matter how exhausted he really was. He would normally be resting with his arms behind his head, but it hurt too much to move them. Not from an actual injury, just his sore muscles. It was odd, because Roxas never showed any strain when they switched with one another, but when they switched back Sora felt like he had taken the brunt of Roxas' exhaustion and injuries. Maybe it had to do with the fact that it was his actual body they were sharing, but he was too tired to think about it too much.

He wished that he could just fall asleep, but every time he tried, something would force him awake again. It was hard, trying to pinpoint exactly what was keeping him awake. It would have been easy to say that his insomnia was courtesy of his arching body, but that wasn't it. He went through every cause that he could think of. The bed was like heaven compared to sleeping on the ground, the movement of the ship was soothing to him, and the walls were fairly soundproof (so he couldn't hear Riku's loud snoring if it was asleep, which Sora doubted he was). He would have loved to say Roxas was the cause, but his Nobody was exhausted from the battle that he had fought earlier and had settled on sleeping in a dark corner of Sora's mind where his Other's thoughts couldn't bother him.

His thoughts turned to Kairi and he felt guilt wash through him. While Naminé had proved to be willing to rise to the occasion in a tight spot, Kairi had shown that, while she seemed alright the majority of the time, she was still a bit disturbed and unbalanced by what had happened to her. Really, Sora couldn't blame her. It was his fault. Maybe if he hadn't frightened her by pinning her against the wall that morning she wouldn't have been as freaked out by being restrained as she was.

Now he knew what was bothering him. Why he wasn't able to sleep. He knew it was his fault. He shouldn't have pushed her so much. He was willing to bet that everything that they had been doing recently from the deep kisses to the small, intimate touches, had been for him, even if she was uncomfortable with it. He hated himself for making her think that she had to do that. He hated himself for not getting to her in time. He hated himself for letting Jorix take her.

Now that he thought about it, he had no clue why Kairi was really with him anymore. He had proven that he was no good for her, that he just let her get hurt. The thought of her leaving actually made his heart constrict and ache, but sometimes he couldn't help but think that it would have been for the best. Still, she wanted to be around him. He was the only one she could stand to be around for so long. He knew that people who weren't their friends would have thought that their relationship was unhealthy because of how much she depended on him. Hell, outsiders probably would have thought that it was one of those cases when a victim of abuse who still loved their abuser.

He would never hurt her intentionally. Sure, everyone fought with their partner in some manner, and it was healthy to argue a bit in a relationship and not to keep things bottled up, but he would never ever hit her. He would never force her to do something that she didn't want to. He would never force her future and dreams from her. He had promised his mother that when he was younger that he would never ever hurt anyone like that. Considering how much of a (admittedly) mama's boy he was, he took it very seriously.

Kairi was perfect in his mind, and he was just so messed up. If anything, he hurt her by worrying her, by scaring her. She was so reliant on him (too reliant, really) that he didn't want to think about what would happen if he was ever gone. She had been so happy and confident before the Keyblade had appeared, so strong willed and tough. Then, she just seemed to lose most of her fight. It had been coming back before be torn away from her again. He knew that, in the end, it was all because of him.

As far as Sora was concerned, he had ruined her.

He turned his head, looking towards the porthole that was in his room. He hadn't closed the metal cover over it, enjoying seeing the lights of space beyond it. A frown appeared on his face as he realized that there wasn't nearly as many stars as before, when he, Donald and Goofy traveled around their small corner of the universe fighting the Organization. No, this reminded him more of his first adventures when worlds were being swallowed up by darkness. They had two separate enemies who were both doing a lot of damage, and their attention was being divided between the two. It was no surprise that everything seemed to be crumbling around them.

At least they got rid of two of them now, leaving only three left. One a sick, twisted rapist, and the other an insane psychopath.

Sora got up and closed the metal blinds, deciding that he didn't enjoy seeing the lights of space after all. He slumped back down onto his bed, not even bothering to completely pull his legs up. Instead, he stayed splayed out lazily with his blankets everywhere and only his boxers on. As he lay there, his mind started to wander. If he was judging right, his seventeenth birthday would be coming up in a few weeks. That was an incredibly odd thought.

That led to a second odd thought and he once again pushed himself off of the bed, moving over to the dresser that was in his room. He quickly pulled off the t-shirt that was over his digital alarm clock (He didn't particularly care where his clothes went when he was getting ready for bed) and stared at it, both the time and the date visible. A sigh escaped his lips as he dropped his shirt to the floor and slumped back down onto his bed again.

His birthday was in early January, and it was a few weeks away. He had been hoping that it was actually December 20th or something along those lines, but his hopes proved to be just that: hopes. Of course he would only notice that it was Christmas on Christmas Eve. No one else had mentioned it. They were all so busy, and they had never got the communications system up and running, so there was no way that anyone could call to tell them.

He sighed sadly. It was horrible that all of this fighting had made them forget that it was Christmas. He felt like a horrible friend, and more importantly, a horrible boyfriend. This was the first Christmas where he and Kairi were official! It was supposed to be special! He had already missed her birthday.

The sound of his door opening and closing startled Sora. He looked around and could just make out the figure of a familiar person walking over to him, and a smile appeared on his face. Kairi moved around a bit before finally hitting the very dim lamp in his room (he had been meaning to chance the low watt light bulb for a few days now) and then moving over to his bed. He pushed himself up as he watched his girlfriend approach, his eyes wandering down and back up her figure on their own accord. The red dress that she had worn in Halloween Town had been drop dead sexy, but her simple, white nightdress made her look stunningly beautiful. Like an angel, his corny mind decided. He had seen her completely naked, yet there was something about that nightdress that made it so he couldn't tear his eyes away from her. He didn't want to ogle her, but he couldn't pry his eyes away. It made him feel a little guilty and ashamed, because here he was visibly checking her out and she had a panic attack earlier because of memories of being raped. 'Yeah, best boyfriend ever,' he thought sarcastically.

She sat down and curled up next to him, resting her head on his shoulder. He wrapped his arm around her instinctively, and she whispered, "I couldn't sleep. I'm not really sure why I thought I could sleep in my own room without you. I have nightmares when you're not there holding me. When you weren't there this morning was the first time." Sora blushed as she spoke, still frowning a bit as he stroked her hair. "I know I said this morning that maybe just having something that's yours or smells like you or something that might not actually be working but I'll think that it'll be working so it'll work but I don't think it'll work anymore. I don't know what I'll do when we get home cause you won't be just across the hall, you'll be far enough away so that it would take me so long to get there and someone could come by while I'm walking and—"

"I'll just have to sneak around," Sora said with a forced grin, stopping her rant by gently placing his finger of her lips before letting it fall. He was serious though, because he didn't want her wandering around at night alone. In general, Destiny Islands was a very safe place, but still, you never know.

Kairi wasn't oblivious though. She could see how forced his grin was. She knew that what had happened earlier that day, both her freaking out a bit that morning and panicking when Sarlio had restrained her wasn't just bothering her. It was bothering him too. She knew Sora would feel guilty, though there was no real reason for him to in her mind. She knew that he would start to tiptoe around her again.

Kairi had never told him how much she appreciated what he had done for her in the months that passed. Sure, she knew that he knew that she appreciated his patience and tenderness with her, but she never really said anything. She also knew that he was always thinking ahead with how he could touch her and where. That's why Kairi knew that she had to lead if she wanted anything else. Still, she knew that he was almost uncomfortable with her, like he didn't know what to do with her.

She had to admit how incredibly nervous she was the first time that she had stripped down in front of him to only her underwear, even more so when she actually took a shower with him in their incredibly small showers.

Still, now though, knowing how reserved he was, Kairi felt angry rather than helpless. She was angry at Jorix for raping her in the first place, angry at herself for being so weak and letting it happen (and then later on letting it effect her so much), and she was angry at Sora too. Kairi knew how much he wanted her, that much was painfully obvious, but he physically kept her away, as if afraid to break her. Sora had been getting better with her, but now because of her moments of panic earlier, she knew that unless she stopped it, he was going to back away from her a bit again. Kairi knew that if she started something and really wanted it, not hesitating or backing off, he would go with it, but if she even seemed a bit nervous he backed up. To be honest, she was sick of it. She knew that she had reacted in a way stronger than many other victims did, but she also knew that he would never let it happen again.

Kairi watched his eyes close and felt disappointment go through her. She didn't want him to go to sleep, she wanted...well she wasn't quite sure what she wanted. She stared at his face for a moment and felt a small thrill of mingling fear and excitement pass through her. Kairi knew exactly what she wanted, and even though she was a little bit frightened, she knew that this was Sora and not some bastard forcing himself onto her when she was helpless. This was a completely different situation.

Sora let out a small groan and his eyes opened while Kairi climbed on top of him so that she was lying on his body. He stared at her with confusion until she kissed him deeply. He was a little bit stunned as she let her lips trail down from his lips to his neck because she had never tried to really initiate anything while they were in the confines of a bed before, only going as far as to playfully grab him to tease (torture) him, but nothing like this. If they were in a space where she could move around (get away) quickly, then she tended to be more relaxed.

"K-Kairi," he muttered, placing a hand on her lower back, wincing a bit as he felt her teeth bite his skin with a bit of force, "what are you doing?"

Kairi giggled a bit and said, "Well, I just gave you a hickey and I'm going to work at a second one, why?"

He flushed as she continued and tried to stutter something else, but her kisses effectively kept him distracted and unable to think of what he really wanted to say.

"Wait," he suddenly said and managed to push her back gently so that he was staring into her eyes. She let out a small sound of annoyance and gave him an impatient look. He brushed a hand through her hair and looked at her closely. God how he wanted to just roll them over and kiss her everywhere. "I don't want to scare you. Everything's been going so well, but I don't want you to think that you have to do something you're uncomfortable with for me."

Kairi leaned down and kissed him sweetly on the lips, moving away so that there was only a breath's space between them. A determined look passed over her face as she said, "I don't want to be afraid. I don't want to think about that anymore. I know that I can trust you because I know how much you fantasize but you've never tried to push me into doing anything I didn't want to. I sleep in the same bed with you most of the time, so it's kinda hard not to notice. I know I'm not a—well I know I'm technically not a virgin, but I don't want to remember that. I want to forget that it ever happened. I know I never will completely, but I know I can't let it effect me anymore. What if Naminé wouldn't have been able to take over for me today? I'm tired to being weak. I want to replace those bad memories with something else. I want it to be you I remember."

This time, Sora let himself kiss her gently. She let out a hum of happiness and, with a pulse of bravery passing through her, she nudged them so that they were on their sides before tugging at him to pull him on top of her. She was a little nervous, but she just kept saying that it was Sora, and he would never hurt her. This was the first time in a very long time that she had really allowed him to linger over her, his weight pressing down onto her. It didn't frighten her though. Instead it felt comforting, like nothing in the world could possibly hurt her. For a moment though, as Sora gently allowed his lips to reach her neck, trailing down to her collarbone, she winced, a flash of a blue haired boy being so much rougher passing through her mind. Kairi forced that away though as a small groan escaped her lips. She let out a deep breath and whispered, "Sora?"

He jerked away quickly, staring at her with alarm. He scrambled off of her, sitting on the edge of the bed. She stared at him with bewilderment before hearing him muttering to himself about hurting her. She understood immediately. He had thought that he had done something wrong and she had been asking him to stop. An angered look appeared on her face as she suddenly got up. She wasn't weak, and she was going to prove it.

Sora felt Kairi try to yank him back farther on the bed, and he reluctantly complied. She let go of him and startled him by climbing onto his lap so that she was straddling him, forcing him to look at her. He couldn't help but feel surprised at her angry glare.

"Stop it," Kairi hissed at him. "Stop thinking I'm going to break. I know you're not him. I know you won't hurt me. Treating me like I'm a piece of thin glass isn't going to help me anymore. It really did help at first though. It felt so good knowing that there was someone there would cared about me and who was so patient with me. All the things I've done with you in the passed few weeks should have shown you that I'm alright. I know this morning probably didn't help with that, but it was a one-time slip. I'm thinking that as long as there's no direct contact with walls or restrains (she said this in a teasing tone before becoming serious a gain), then I'll be okay. The way things have been going should have shown you that I'm actually getting more comfortable and confident."

There was silence as he tried to say something, but nothing would come out. She could see in his eyes how much he wanted to continue with what they were doing earlier, but something else was there too. Reluctance, or something similar. Suddenly, an odd look appeared on her face as an irrational thought stormed her mind. She shoved at him violently while pushing herself off of him, scrambling back a bit.

Sora didn't know what had happened. Kairi was staring at him with an almost mortified expression, and he really didn't like it. Before he could say anything else she said, "It's because I'm technically not a virgin anymore, isn't it? Or maybe because I had an infection thanks to him? I'm dirty, disgusting, used and diseased. You don't want to be with a girl who's so tainted."

"No!" Sora cried out in horror. "That's not it at all." It was true, early on he wondered if he would get anything if Kairi wasn't really all right, but she had gone to a doctor and the doctor said that she checked out, so he had never thought of it again. He didn't care that she wasn't a virgin—well he did, but that was because he was angry at the thought that she lost it while being raped.

"Then what?" she snapped back, tears welding up in her eyes. "What could it possibly be then? It's obvious what I want, it's obvious that your body wants it, so why won't you? You're a guy, you're not the one who is supposed to hesitate. You're just always supposed to be like 'hell yeah' while I'm like 'maybe…I dunno' and then you convince me and everything's good. Am I that weak, that pathetic, that it makes you cringe? I don't see—"

"Because I love you!" he yelled at her, cutting off her irrational ramblings, and both instantly went silent. They sat there, staring at each other until Kairi broke the silence.

"What?"

Sora took a deep breath before saying, "I know I've never really said it before. The only time I have was right after it happened, but it wasn't just something to calm you down, I really do love you."

Kairi let her tears fall as she whispered, "Sometimes—sometimes I wondered what you really thought, especially after he—he raped me. You called me your girlfriend, but sometimes you didn't say anything or just called me a friend. I—I care about you so much and I never want to lose you. It's pathetic how much I actually do need you. I want you so much, and the thought that you only think I'm damaged goods hurts so much. I just—"

Sora kissed her suddenly. It wasn't particularly deep or passionate, but she could feel the affection pouring from him. He pulled away from it and said, "I'm sorry I made you think that. I've never once seen you as something like damaged goods or anything like that. I never meant to push you away or to be distant. I just didn't want you thinking that all I wanted you for was sex. That's why, with the way things have been going and how—well, how we've been mostly just physical, I wanted to slow down in case it's not really what you wanted. You pushed yourself to try and be comfortable with something you're not before, and I didn't want you to do it again. Not with this. I mean, god knows I wanted to, not the forcing you but the sleeping with you. I think everyone knew that."

She sniffed a bit, but she was smiling now and he knew that it was a good thing. She leaned close to him and said, "Say it again. Please."

He blushed a bit, not because he was embarrassed, because he had already told her how he loved her, but rather by thoughts running around his head. Did the words 'I love you' really sum up the way he felt about her? He didn't think so. She literally meant more to him than anything else in the universe. He loved her in a way that, if it wasn't in such a pure way, it would be borderline obsession. He was sure that if she ever left him, he would probably end up having a mental break down and doing something stupid before becoming some crazed stalker who would then have a restraining order brought up against him by her. After that he would just wallow away in his self-pity before killing himself. Of course, he would still never force her into anything she didn't want to be part of.

He had thought it out in detail.

Part of his mind (that sounded suspiciously like Riku) said that he was being a wuss and that no man would really say something like that, especially not a teenaged one. She was his universe though, and if it meant giving up any manliness that he had, he would do it. Hell, if she suddenly decided that she'd rather be a lesbian, he would probably get a sex change just to still be with her. Or if she decided to be a guy he'd be willing to be gay for her, he was that dedicated to her. Her and nobody else.

"You shouldn't have to ask," he whispered as he brushed his hand through her hair before cupping her cheek as he drew her close again.

Kairi leaned into his touch, her eyes fluttering shut as she said, "I need to hear it from you again. I need to know I'm not just going insane and making things up that I want to hear. I don't want to think that you're just keeping me away because you see me as a victim."

It had never really occurred to him that that was exactly how he had been treating her. He never let things get back to normal, he just kept treating her like he had when he first found her. To be fair, he hadn't known when was the right time for him to act normal around her. He had never known, let alone interacted with, someone as traumatized as she had been.

Sora removed his hand from her cheek, causing her to open her eyes and stare at him. He smiled warmly at her before whispering, "I love you."

He didn't need to give her a long-winded speech about how much he adored her and how he would even find a way to kill a God for her. She had seen how much he would do for her by the actions that he performed from day to day, and she knew how highly he thought of her by how he never once got tired of presence while they were together. They had their little tiffs, but small misunderstandings were good for any relationship, or at least that's what they had been told. Sora didn't need to tell her how he thought she was the most beautiful girl in the world, because he had said it before for no reason but to let her know. He knew that she had her flaws, and he gladly accepted those, although admittedly he did overlook them a lot. He just loved everything about her. Inside of her heart, she had always known that, she had always felt it, but she needed to hear it too.

A huge smile appeared on the redhead's face as she buried her face in the crook of his neck and said, "I love you too Sora, and thank you."

"I don't know why I didn't tell you except for that one time," he admitted as he put on hand on her lower back and stroked her hair with his other one. "I've known that I at least care about you as more than a friend since I was fourteen. When you were taken away, and your heart was inside of me, I realized just how much I actually cared about you. I suppose that it was seeing all of the couples in the worlds that started to really hit it home. The thing that made me realize it was actually love was actually Saïx."

"Saïx?" she asked slowly.

"He asked me if I really cared about you," Sora explained, frowning at the memory. "I told him that you meant more to me than anything else, and he told me to show him. I bowed down to him, but he just—he wouldn't give you back. I'll never be above begging when it comes to you. I swore I'd never let any one else hurt you and then...he just took you. I couldn't stop him. If I had shown up any later you could have been...well...the point is that I should be telling you how much I love you as much as I can."

Kairi pushed him back so that he was lying on the bed and she was on top of him again. She leaned down and pressed her lips to his, sensing how upset the memories made him. She had obviously taken the worst from all of the situations, but in a way, he was scarred by it too, particularly the one with Jorix. He had let her get hurt in one of the worst ways that she could have been, but she needed him to know that she didn't blame him at all. She broke away from him, breathing deeply as she said, "I don't want you to say it every day. I don't want it to be routine or anything. I just want you to mean it."

She felt his hands grip her tightly, but not painfully, as he said, "And I don't ever want to lose you again."

"You won't," she reassured him. "No fights, nothing will really tear us apart. At the risk of sounding corny, I'm a part of you and you're a part of me and—"

She was surprised when Sora cut her off with a passionate kiss, but she let her eyes slip closed. She felt him slowly roll them over, giving her the chance to stop him if she wanted to, until he was once again on top of her. She felt her blood start pumping harder as he started to kiss his way down her neck and his hand running up her night dress, pushing the garment up with it. She felt a little nervous, but she just kept focusing on the fact that he loved her. There was a sudden flash of panic in her mind, but she pushed it away, not wanting to feel anything negative.

Later on, she realized that she should have listened to that little bit of panic because it had nothing to do with her being uncomfortable with him. It had to do with the fact that a part of her mind was trying to remind her that they didn't have any protection on them. Luckily, the timing had been wrong (or in this case, right) and she hadn't gotten pregnant. She never once forgot about it after that though. Well, maybe once or twice, but afterwards she made sure to get herself on the pill.

She felt her body's temperature rising in a good way and she let out a breathy moan and said, "Sora?"

"Yeah?" he replied distractedly as his lips dusted over her shoulder, pushing her spaghetti straps off of her shoulders in the process.

"You know what day is it, right?" she muttered.

Sora paused before glancing into her eyes, an ashamed look appeared on his face as he took his hand from out of her dress. He nodded his head and said, "I didn't get you a Christmas present. I'm sorry."

She kissed him before saying, "No, no, it's okay. Actually, I was thinking about how everything has gone so far, and that this is the best gift you could give me. I think this is a pretty good gift for you, but on your birthday it'll be different."

"Different how?" Sora asked with an odd look.

She giggled and leaned close to his ear, whispering, "Easy, I'll help you with any of those little dreams in your head. Any of them. Just no involving Naminé or anyone else"

Sora chuckled and said, "In that case then, I had better make sure to do more than just a good job now." With that, he sealed his lips over hers again, and soon nothing else mattered except for the other.

**VVVVVVVV**

__Sora and Kairi weren't the only ones who couldn't sleep that night. Riku made his way back from the bridge, heading towards Sora's room. He was sure that the brunet would be awake at the moment, and he just felt the need to talk to someone. Rubbing the side of his face, he winced a bit as he felt the tender area around his eye. Mickey, once he was fully conscious, had known a spell to carefully remove the splinters from around his eye, and after Donald was back up, he had said that the wounds were shallow enough for a curaga to work. Still, the skin was a little bit sore and tender to the touch. He would consider himself luck though. It could have been much worse. Actually, if he were Sora, he probably would have lost an eye. It was just the way Sora seemed to unwillingly roll recently.

The door to Sora's room was closed when he got there, but Riku slowly pushed it open just a bit to peak in to make sure that his friend wasn't actually asleep. When it came to his best friend, knocking wasn't something that he had ever done. Riku couldn't sleep if he could even seen the light of an alarm clock in his room, preferring the pitch black to anything else, but he knew that Sora could sleep anywhere and through anything, so the fact that one of his dim lights was on didn't tell Riku if the brunet was asleep or not.

When he looked around the door, Riku's green eyes widened before he quickly, but quietly, shut the door. He felt blood rushing to his cheeks with embarrassment, and now that he knew what was going on behind his friend's door, he couldn't help but hear the muffled sounds coming from the room. He was absolutely stunned, because he was sure that Kairi wouldn't have let Sora go that far with her, even though it had been months since she had been raped now. From the way she had been acting, almost like a small child, he had been expecting her to swear off sex until marriage, and then some. Well, Sora had _implied_ that they had been messing around a bit, but Sora was a guy and Riku knew how well some guys liked to exaggerate to their friends. He was the master at it.

He shook his head and was about to walk away when a loud sound from the room caught his attention. The walls were practically soundproof, and it was really hard to hear through the doors, so the sound had to be loud to be heard that clearly. Riku once again blushed, knowing that it was Kairi's voice, and quickly rushed down the hall. He needed to find bleach or something to get the mental image that was now ingrained into his head away. Sure he had caught a flash of a nude Kairi and that would never ever be an image that would leave his mind. Because even the Gods knew that while Riku wasn't in love with her anymore, he was still a guy and she was still a hot girl. For a moment he was jealous of Sora, him and nearly every other guy that knew Kairi.

Then it hit him again what he had walked in on and he wanted to shoot himself in the head again. Of course, he would tease them mercilessly later on (Sora in particular) but for now he felt like putting bleach in his eyes.

Riku retreated back towards the bridge, peering curiously inside when he heard rustling from inside. Goofy was sitting in one of the seats, monitoring the auto-pilot in case it cut out from the damage the ship had taken, but his attention was focused on the small box in his hands. Riku leaned against the door, watching as Goofy carefully taped up the box with brightly coloured paper.

"What are you doing?" he asked curiously.

Goofy glanced up at him, apparently not startled at all at his appearance, and said, "Gawrsh, I know Maxie has presents back home, but I do feel awfully bad about not being there for Christmas. So I got him something special, and I figured that I should wrap it while I have time, and it is Christmas Eve. Oh, actually I guess it's Christmas day." Goofy motioned to the clock. "Well, Merry Christmas Riku."

The young man was absolutely stunned at this revelation. He had no idea that it was even close to Christmas, let alone the day itself.

He shot a small smile at Goofy and said, "Thanks Goofy. Merry Christmas." He quickly turned and left the room, still completely shocked that they had all (except for Goofy, apparently) forgotten Christmas.

Riku shook his head, he needed a drink or something, and not just of water.

He wandered into the kitchen, even though some people vehemently insisted that it was a galley, not a kitchen. He snorted a bit at the thought as he walked through the door, only to see the person who was so opposed to his use of the word kitchen sitting in said room.

Midori was leaning back in one of the chairs, her bare feet resting on the tabletop as she drank something out of a tall glass. She had tossed her brown boots and her brown vest aside, just sitting in her jean shorts and her dark red tank top. He stared at the brightly coloured mixture she was drinking curiously, and she said, "I can't handle beer or just straight alcohol. I like fruit flavors. Want some?"

"Since when do you drink?" he asked with amusement.

"I, Silver, am nineteen now, so I am allowed. Besides, we're in space, the lanes between worlds, there is no legal age here because most people don't know about it." It was obvious that the cup in her hand was not her first. She looked at him curious and asked, "Want something?"

"Not gonna tell mommy or daddy, are you?"

She looked up at him with interest and said, "Kairi's pregnant?"

"What? No!" Riku cried out, his thoughts warily turning back to what he had seen, "At least I don't think so. Yet anyway. Why would you say that?"

"Because you said mommy and daddy and I'm pretty sure I'm already a tad bit drunk so I just assumed. Besides, they're so lovey-dovey with each other that they're bound to go at each other if they haven't already." She studied Riku's face before giggling and saying, "Actually, I take it that they already did and you saw it. You know you're not supposed to watch your best friends have sex, right? That's just weird. And creepy. You're a creeper Riku. Like my best friend was a total slut, and we saw her all over the place, but what the hell could ya do? It was her fault for being a slut. You were creeping on your friends though. Creepy creeper."

"I didn't mean to see anything!" Riku said while throwing his hands in the air. He went to the fridge, and grabbed a few bottles of the closest alcohol he could find, which were bright pink, but he didn't even care. Then again, he also had no clue why they had alcohol on the ship at all. He was sure that Mickey hadn't stocked it. Though he sometimes wondered about Donald and his anger issues.

They drank in silence, but soon, as one turned into two, two turned into four, and four turned into who-the-hell-knows, they became much more animated and lively.

"I bet you one hundred million thousand billion munny that Kairi gets pregnant before they're 20," Midori said suddenly, even though they had been having a conversation about why Charizard was an awesome Pokemon, which came from Midori accusing Riku of stealing her Charizard and wanting it back, and neither remembered where that came from. Word association was a very confusing game when involving a drunk Midori and Riku.

"They will not," Riku replied. "Sora's too much of a goody-goody to get her goodies without covering the candy dish."

They stared at each other in silence for a moment before laughing hysterically at his choice of words. It didn't make any sense, but to a drunk person everything made sense and everything that didn't was hilarious.

"You know what?" Riku said after a while. "I don't even care that our enemy is like your evil twin, you are awesome! You should come back to Destiny Islands when this is over and we'll have bonfires and get smashed like this all of the time. Then I won't be a third wheel as Sora and Kairi try to make a thousand billion little Soras and Kairis because they'll totally succeed. Also what the hell, how did Sora, who is younger than me, get laid first? I mean, come on, I'm easily the hotter, more manly one!"

"I thought you did," Midori said seriously, because this was a very serious issue that needed to be addressed in her mind. "Sora and Kairi told me that you man-whored around."

"Those are called rumors. You know, those things that people say and they spread around almost as fast as a disease when the disease comes from a whore who sleeps with everyone like they said I did. I let them spread cause I don't give a flying monkey shit. I don't want syphilis and herpes and gonorrhea that those girls have. Hey, do you have any of them? Wanna help a brother out?"

His answer was a slap to a face that didn't hurt at the time, but would sting like hell when he woke up with a hangover the next morning. Especially because she had nicked the spot that had been healed earlier. She sat back in her chair again, looking calm as she said, "You are not 'a brother' first of all. Have you not seen The Longest Yard? You're so white that I'm surprised your eyes aren't red and you're not all albino-y. Like, you must be glow in the dark you're that pale. I am not a whore. I am a classy girl who a guy has to work for. So my Silver, I'm going to have to say, oh hell no. I'd try to do some finger snaps but I can't."

"You just shattered all of my dreams," he said while slumping onto the table dramatically. "Wait, you can't snap your fingers? What kind of weirdo are you?"

"And I enjoyed it too." She completely disregarded his second question. They both jumped as the microwave beeped as the clock turned to two. Midori looked startled and said, "You know what that means? It's two! It's night! Or is it in the morning? Oh who cares! Also thank you microwave, now I want popcorn."

"So what are we doing tonight Midi?" he asked her with interest.

"The same thing we do every night Silver," she answered seriously. "Try to take over the world!"

"Really?" Riku asked with something akin to excitement.

"No," Midori said with a shrug. "Sora and Kairi are going to do that with their googol amount of babies."

"What the fuck is a googol?"

"Well it's not the website Google if that's what you're thinking. If you were, you're a dumbass. It's a number that is equal to one point zero time ten to the power of one hundred," she answered as if everyone should know such a random fact.

"Hmmm," Riku looked incredibly thoughtful all of a sudden. "Sounds about right. They'll probably have a googol's googol amount of kids."

"And you'll be left to baby sit them all."

Riku was never one to cry, but in his drunken state, he actually let himself sob at the thought of babysitting a 'googol's googol' amount of mini Sora and Kairi's. Midori patted his back and said, "Merry Christmas Silver."

"Frohe Weihnachten," he muttered in reply while crying.

"Since when do you speak German?"

"I don't even know. I just sounds fun."

**VVVVVVVV**

Sora stared up at the white ceiling in his room, unable to fall asleep no matter how exhausted he really was. It was a different type of exhaustion and insomnia from before though. This time, he couldn't stop smiling, even though his back ached something terrible, the scratches on it leaving small dots of blood on the white sheets of his bed that he hoped he would never have to explain to Mickey, Donald or Goofy. Actually, he didn't want to explain it to anybody, including Roxas.

The arrogant, teenage part of himself wanted to rush over to Riku's room and brag about how he had finally got with Kairi, but the part of him that knew Kairi knew that, while she wouldn't be outwardly angry or nasty to him, she would be a little annoyed and embarrassed that he had told their friend. He was sure that his promised birthday present would not actually happen then.

Sora shook his head lightly. He glanced quickly at the clock and saw the numbers 2:19 on the LED screen and looked back up at the ceiling. Barely a half an hour later and he was already worried about it not happening again.

A small groan and movement at his side distracted him from his thoughts. He stared at Kairi as she curled up to his side, her head resting on his chest with her arm stretched out over his stomach. He smiled warmly and stroked her hair, the roots still damp with sweat, causing her to settle down with a happy sigh. He just wanted her to feel safe and comfortable, because a part of him still felt guilty about what had occurred. She had said she was sure, and she had encouraged him every step of the way, but she had been terribly nervous because it was different than just a few intimate touches in the shower.

Still, the situation had been completely different from the time her virginity was forced away from her. She hadn't felt any pain this time though, maybe a bit of discomfort, but it didn't last long, her sounds and actions had told him that much, so that was a good thing. She would never associate any pain with him.

Sora stroked her hair as he shifted a bit, his arm curling around her frame protectively as he finally felt sleep starting to take over. The part of his mind that was still conscious, that surprisingly wasn't Roxas this time, suggested that he tell Kairi that they found a new way to combat their insomnia; reason said that if he did that, she would not be happy with the smart-alack comments at all. He chuckled lightly to himself and whispered, "I love you, Kairi."

She stirred a bit and mumbled, "Love you." She hadn't sounded startled or nervous that she was lying in a bed with a naked boy at all, but more tired and content at the same time. This caused him to smile and fall asleep peacefully.

**Author's Note**

You know how you hear something and you never forget it? Well the 'goody-goody' quote was something (a slight variation of it) I actually heard at my winter formal. I'm not even lying to you. I still go '…wat?' in my head every time I think about it to this day.

Also the Charizard thing happened to me. My little sister took my DS. I wandered over and saw her playing a Pokemon game using Charizard. I sent text messages to all of my friends telling them that she had stolen my Charizard and I wanted it back. Come on, you all know it was the most badass Pokemon of all time. Legendaries don't count. And by Legendaries I include Mew, Mewtwo, and the five birds. Actually screw Ho-Oh, Lugia all the way! Oh my childhood, how I miss you. Also I hate myself for being the person to drunk text everyone. Even my dad. Whatever, I'm legal age everywhere so it doesn't even matter.

So yes, there you have it they finally did it. There are reasons I was building up to it so much, but a lot of it was for character development on Kairi's part. Sora a bit too, but mostly Kairi. That and things to come later on. Anyone who read the original and it's squel knows exactly what I'm talking about.

My reviewers…you all suck because you're so awesome. That's how awesome you are. Thank you to Shifuni, BlackWhiteZangetsu, shadowwolf547, NRZWolf 13, xlittleyingfax and Xorikma. You're all great.

Also just fair warning, I would NOT read the original 'Shadows of Reality' after this is over. I'd wait for the rewrite. Why? Because I ended up changing more in this than I thought I would so a lot of things won't make sense. And it sucks. lol

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	38. When Morning Comes

_I know I never put author's notes at the beginning, but this is a special case. In tribute of the last chapter I give you this piece of awesomeness created by Shire Folk: _

_"So what are we doing tonight Midi?"_

_"The same thing we do every night Riku, try to take over the world!"_

_They're Riku and Midi. They're Riku and Midi. _

_One is a genius, the other is bishie. _

_They're Keyblade Wielders, _

_they're drinking through dessert. _

_They're Riku, they're Riku and Midi-di-di-di-di-di-di-di-di._

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Thirty-Seven – When Morning Comes_

Midori groaned and rested her head against the counter, the cool surface helping a bit with the headache that she had. She was sure that she was a sight to see, hunched over on the counter in a pair of hastily thrown on pajama pants and a shirt that she just realized was on backwards and inside out. Her long hair was a mess, and the little bit of makeup she wore was smudged under her eyes, making her look like Meeko, whom they had met in passing in another world. She seriously sucked at getting herself ready for bed when she was drunk. At least she wasn't puking like Riku was though. They had managed to find more alcohol, so they ended up mixing a ton of drinks. Apparently for all his talk, Riku didn't fare well with copious amounts of alcohol.

Merry Christmas indeed.

Despite the fact that even the smallest bit of light made her wince, she still grinned mischievously as Sora entered the room. The young man ignored her, going about his normal morning routine by digging through the fridge for whatever he could find. There was a permanent smile on his face though, one that seemed different from his goofier smile. She remembered back to her conversation with Riku the night before and giggled hysterically, not caring that it just made her aching head worse.

Sora looked around at her with confusion, but she didn't say a thing as he poured himself a glass of orange juice. Only when he started drinking it did she speak. "So, anything interesting happen last night? I was out like a light."

Sora ended up choking on his juice before looking at her with a rather stunned expression and stuttering, "W-w-what?"

"Oh, I could have slept through anything last night," Midori said with an innocent, sweet tone. "So I was wondering if there was any troubles at all?"

"That's total B-S and you know it," Sora said dryly. "You and Riku both have hangovers. I'd say it was a pretty good night." He had walked passed Riku and heard him grumbling about feeling sick.

"Maybe," she relented, "but I know for a fact that someone else had a different type of good night."

"I don't know what you're talking about," he denied. "I was asleep all night."

"That's total B-S and you know it," she mocked. "You seem nervous Sora. "

He scoffed at her and said, "I'm not." He set his glass in the sink and turned around to walk out the door, bumping into a particularly pale looking Riku. He glanced at his friend with amusement before continuing on his way out and down the hall.

Riku slumped down on one of the chairs and said, "Worst. Morning. Ever."

"Do you remember everything from last night?" Midori asked with amusement lacing through her voice.

"Most of it," he said. "It's not the first time I got drunk. Still, crap that pink stuff was powerful. It doesn't even make any sense!"

She shrugged and said, "What can ya do? I mean, aside from use it to forget that you perved on your friends while they were having sex."

Riku suddenly looked like he was going to be sick again and said, "You had to remind me. You really had to, didn't you?"

She just grinned and said, "So I have to ask, how did that happen? They left the door open?"

"No," Riku said glumly as he got up from the table and went to grab something to eat, not caring if it was just cereal with marshmallow bits. "I never knock on Sora's door before going in. I just kind of opened it and there they were. You have no idea how glad I am that they didn't notice. I ran."

Midori snorted with laughter before asking teasingly, "So, did you check out Kairi? I bet you did. You're a guy, so you would."

He shrugged and said, "I admit it. In the all of one second I saw anything. Girl's more than good-looking. It was disturbing though. Like, real disturbing. Then when I was leaving I could still hear a bit but then Kairi got really loud so I ran."

Midori stared at him for a moment before a rather evil grin appeared on her face and she asked in an innocent voice, "And why would she suddenly be louder than normal Silver?"

He stared at her for a few moments before his eyes went huge. "Oh dear god." He went to slam his head on the table, but he had forgotten that there was a bowl of cereal in front of him.

When Mickey showed up a few minutes later he decided it was best not to ask them what was going on. Midori was laughing hysterically, to the point that there was no real sound coming out of her but there were tears, and Riku was soaked in milk, bits of cereal and marshmallow in his hair. He cleared his throat to get their attention, and though Midori was still giggling a bit and Riku looked less than pleased, he was glad he had their attention. "We're already approaching the next world."

"Really? Already?" Riku asked.

"Yeah, it was closer. Get ready for some hiking though, because it's a jungle world," the mouse explained. "I'm going to go look for some sun screen, bug spray and other things like that. There might not be people there, but I imagine that there are some animals. If I remember right, there were some pretty nasty things in the jungle."

"You've been to Twilight's Destiny before?" Midori questioned, sounding extremely interested.

Mickey shook his head and said, "No. I asked Yen Sid if he had any information on it when we were back at Disney. He gave me a few books to look through. There are things like poisonous snakes, massive snakes, strange spiders and bugs, and some predatory cats as well. All kinds of things."

"Great," Riku said with a sigh. "One of us is going to get attacked by something and hurt, I can tell you that. I mean we've had an awesome track record so far." The last part was said with sarcasm as he rubbed the side of his head where the splinters had to be forcefully removed before cure would work.

"Probably," Midori agreed with a sigh.

"Either way, you two should get ready to go. You know, showers and all," Mickey said, casting them an odd look before leaving the room.

"Did Mickey Mouse just tell us we stink?" Midori asked Riku after a moment.

"I think he was referring to you looking like a raccoon."

She shot him a glare and said, "Whatever marshmallow head. Why don't you just go perv on your friends getting it on again."

"I hate you so much."

**VVVVVVVVVVV**

"Kairi, wake up."

Kairi had actually been conscious for a little while now, pretending to be asleep. At first, it was because he was gone when she woke up and she was a little hurt, but then, when he came back, she pretended to be asleep to see what he'd do. She had been very pleased when he simply sat next to her, observing her. He didn't try to get another peak show or anything without her knowing, instead settling for running his fingers softly through her hair. She felt his hand run down her arm as he gently shook her and said, "Time to wake up sleepyhead."

"No," she whined and tugged the blankets over her head. She giggled as his hands tickled her through the sheets until she tried to scramble away. She winced a bit, not because the dull ache of her body that served as a reminder for the night before actually really hurt, but because she wasn't expecting it. Nothing had hurt the night before, even though she had been uncomfortable at first.

"You okay?" Sora asked her with worry, a soft blush appearing on his cheeks as she sat up. She was holding his blankets close to her, but the sheets had slipped a little lower than before.

"Yeah, I'm okay," Kairi confirmed with a nod of her head. "Just a bit of an ache." She smirked at him, moved a bit closer and said, "Someone was awfully rough."

His blush deepened and he was about to apologize, but then he realized from her sly smile that she was teasing him. He smiled at her in a rather impish way before saying, "Well I kinda had to, didn't I? What, with all the—" She kissed him to get him to shut up.

When they broke apart she asked, "Can you run across the hall and grab some of my clothes? I'd like to have a shower." He knew that she meant a shower on her own that time, but he was okay with that. It was like something had been pacified in him for now.

Still, he had to say the amusing thought that ran across his mind. "You're asking me to go through your underwear?"

"Only if you can get through the tiny ones I put there just to embarrass you," she replied while standing up, keeping the blanket firmly around her. She was extremely glad that they all had showers, though they were extremely tiny. There was barely enough room in it to turn around, making the times she dragged Sora in with her very interesting.

Sora managed to keep the blush off of his face this time and was about to leave the room before Kairi said, "Sora?" He looked around at her expectantly and said, "This isn't going to change us, will it?"

"What?"

"Well...you know...I hear some people act different afterward. Like guys become more cocky or less sweet or things like that. You know, after they have sex."

He smiled slightly as he moved close to her again and hugged her. "Nothing's going to change. Okay, well it will a bit, but only for the better. We're probably going to get some teasing though."

"Why?" she asked, surprise evident across her features.

"I think Midori somehow knows," he admitted sheepishly. "How, I dunno. Riku probably knows too if she does. And once Roxas and Naminé wake up they'll just make fun of us."

Kairi clapped her hands to her mouth suddenly, causing her blanket to fall to the floor. Sora stared, there was no way he couldn't, before swooping down and scooping up the blanket and wrapping it around her body for her. Her horrified face was what stopped him from saying anything inappropriate.

"What?" he questioned.

"Naminé! She's going to be so mad at me," Kairi explained. "She was kinda uncomfortable with what we were already doing, let alone this."

Sora instantly felt bad. At the same time though, he couldn't help but feel a little annoyed with Naminé. It was Kairi's body first, and Kairi had been fine with it. She had even started it. Now that he thought about it, Naminé had been conscious all those other times when they got close, so he had a feeling that she had something to do with Kairi always pulling away.

"It's okay," he said to her comfortingly. "She'll understand. Now you go get a shower while I raid your panty drawer."

She smiled weakly at his joke but went into the bathroom anyway. It was like her mother had caught her in bed with him. Then again, Naminé was definitely more frightening than her mother.

As he left the room, he once again bumped into Riku. "Jeez man, are you stalking me?"

"All the time," Riku joked. "Where are you off to?"

"I get to go through Kairi's clothes for her," Sora said, purposely sounding overly excited as he walked into his girlfriend's room. Really, Kairi wasn't any sort of neat freak like a lot of people thought she was. Her room was always as messy as his was, if not messier.

"And why didn't she just wander over to her room?" Riku asked with a raised eyebrow.

Sora blushed, not sure if he wanted his friend to know what had happened last night. He had a feeling that Riku already knew, but still, it was kind of awkward to talk about. "Cause she wants to take a shower?"

"Get her some clothes that she can be comfortable in for long walks. We're coming up to the next world pretty fast. The jungle one," Riku said, watching as Sora nodded and pulled out a pair of Kairi's longer shorts.

Riku waited for a moment before saying, "So, our little Sora and Kairi are all grown up." He knew that he had to mention it; it was the only way he was going to get it out of his head. Of course, he would never tell Sora that he had seen them. Not soberly, at least.

Sora looked around, blushing a bit before shrugging and looking back at the drawer. Riku saw the grin on his face though.

"Come on, you guys weren't exactly quiet."

Sora looked horrified but Riku assured him that Mickey, Donald and Goofy had no idea. He sighed in relief and said, "What does it matter?"

"Cause it's the rules. Guy with the hottest girlfriend has to share all appropriate endeavors. Well, I suppose our parents would find them inappropriate, but for someone with a girlfriend like Kairi, it is very appropriate. If you didn't do her eventually I'd probably have to officially say that you were gay."

"I'm pretty sure we established that I am straight," Sora said as he dug through her shirts. He had no idea why she had so many of them, or why so many of them were pink and white. "Also that rule isn't fair. You don't have a girlfriend to compare Kairi to."

Riku gave Sora an odd look before saying, "First off, just want to reassure you that I have no feelings for Kairi anymore. Just want to throw that out there. Second, even if I had a girlfriend, odds are she wouldn't be as fine as Kairi. I'm a guy, what can I say? Like, forget all about her personality and just look at it from a physical point of view. She's hot, and she's got a nice a—"

"Finish that and, friend or not, I will break your nose," Sora warned him as he tossed the first underwear and bra he came across onto her pile of clothes before searching for her socks. Why did this girl not have a pair of matching ones anywhere? Then again, he couldn't remember the last time he had seen her without mismatched socks. He didn't worry about it, cause all his were white. What was the point of getting designed or colourful ones if you were just going to mess them up?

"You are so whipped," Riku said with a laugh. "Sounded like she had fun though last night."

Sora looked over at his friend with a light glare before grinning and shrugging. "She promised me good things for my birthday. I had something to prove."

Riku laughed, clapped his hand on Sora's shoulder. "I knew there was a normal guy there somewhere. Not just one who was wrapped around his girlfriend's finger."

"At least I have a girlfriend," Sora replied as he picked up the clothes he chose for Kairi. If it had been Riku choosing, he would have chosen something very small just to fluster her, but Sora wasn't going to do that. Despite his talk, he was too worried that she might get the impression that he only wants her because of sex now. In the long run, he knew that the thought that she had been raped was something that would always be in the back of her mind, but she wasn't trying to push it away really. Kairi accepted that it happened, and she was trying to make herself stronger so that it would never happen to her or any of her other friends.

Sora, after Riku left, waited for Kairi to come out of the bathroom. He didn't know what was taking her so long. She had explained once that she had to scrub, follow all the instructions of her bottles carefully, and do whatever else girls did. He had tuned her out. He didn't much care about what she did when he was in the shower, just that she was, in fact, in a shower. Once she came out of the room, wrapped in a large yellow towel, he explained where they were going. Kairi warily said that someone was going to get attacked by a snake or something. Probably either her or Sora.

She had tried to shoo him out of the room as she got changed, but he just pointed out that not only was it his room, but he had already seen her naked. She couldn't deny either of these claims, but he still respected her enough to wait outside. He had a feeling that Naminé was conscious and was feeling embarrassed, angry, or both.

Roxas finally revealed that he too was conscious by telling Sora that Naminé refused to talk to him at the moment, so Sora was bang on.

Once she came out, Sora gave her a quick, chaste kiss before taking her hand and leading her towards the bridge.

**VVVVVVVVVVV**

"Oh dear god, it's hot here too."

The second they stepped out of the gummi ship onto the world the heat assaulted them. Mickey, Donald and Goofy waved their hands in front of their faces, wishing that they could all shed their fur or feathers. Midori seemed immediately uncomfortable, pulling back her hair into a pony towel and scowling. The ones least affected were Sora, Kairi and Riku. Unlike a place like Agrabah that had an extremely dry heat, this place had a high humidity. Coming from a tropical island though, this was the type of heat that the three of them were used to. In a way, it reminded Sora of home. The vegetation seemed to be relatively similar, as did the landscape and weather.

Then again, Sora had figured out after speaking to his grandmother that the two inhabited worlds that had once been a part of Twilight's Destiny were most likely Twilight Town and Destiny Islands, so it would make sense that some of it seemed familiar. The volcanoes at Burning Embers threw him right off though. He supposed that they were at a spot farther away from the more tropical climate.

"This is insane," Midori grumbled. "The heat is almost disgusting."

"You're from a relatively cold would," Mickey pointed out as they carefully walked through the jungle. "And most worlds we've been to have been fairly mild."

"Maybe," she agreed reluctantly. "At least I won't get a burn though. My skin is too dark."

"Speak for yourself," Kairi said. "I'm going to have a killer sunburn."

"You and Silver will," Midori said with a laugh. "I swear, both of you should be albino."

"Don't worry Iri," Sora said with an assuring smile, "you don't need a tan. I like you the way you are."

She blushed a bit, smiling happy to herself. Even Naminé, who was still a little angry that Kairi went and slept with her boyfriend without her consent, had to smile at that on the inside.

"Does anyone else notice how this place looks like home?" Riku asked after a moment. "Wonder if that means there are the same creatures here."

"Maybe some," Donald said. "But not everything would be the same."

"That's called evolution," Sora said with a shrug. He suddenly cast a quick glare at Riku and said, "We are not getting into a creationism-evolution argument right now."

"They do that often?" Midori asked Kairi with amusement.

The younger girl shrugged and said, "Riku's father is very dedicated to the gods, so it makes sense that Riku would be a bit too. Sora's mother, on the other hand, never really cared all that much so Sora doesn't really care. Sora's strength in school has always been English, particularly writing, so he's more artsy than anything, but he tends to agree with science more than religion. He's always been a stubborn believer that even if the God and Goddess of our world did exist, we've surpassed our need for them. He sucks with biology for the most part, actually he's horrible with most sciences and maths, so it surprising that he even knows what evolution is. I suppose he did alright in history Maybe he retained something."

"So he's going to be a writer whose stories are based on times in history. Interesting." There was a pause before Midori smirked and said, "So, does he suck at biology over all or does he seem to know the female body pretty well?"

Kairi blushed and didn't say a word, pretending that she hadn't heard the question.

"Water!" Donald yelled suddenly, and was about to make a mad dash to the river in front of them when Sora grabbed his arm to stop him.

Donald cast him an unimpressed look as Sora said, "If this place is like home, or worse, than there might be some very...what's the word I'm looking for?" He looked at Riku to help.

Riku crossed his arms in front of him and said, "Definitely unpleasant things. Like crocodiles and poisonous snakes for instance. At home it's not as bad, but this place hasn't seen humans in years."

Donald looked warily at the water.

"So, the question is, if you were a gate, where would you be?" Goofy asked.

"In the deepest, darkest part of the jungle," Riku replied with a shrug.

Sora bit his lip and said, "This place is too big. The only way I can think of finding it is...well...if we split up."

"What if we had someone on the gummi ship?" Mickey asked suddenly. "They can track us to make sure we don't get lost. Or to alert the others if something goes wrong."

"Sounds like a good idea," Sora agreed.

Kairi sighed, causing everyone to look at her. She gave Sora an accusing look and said, "You want me to go, right?" Her voice seemed calm to most people, but Sora could hear the anger dripping from it.

"Please?" Sora asked, his eyes widening a bit more and a pout appearing on his face.

The anger left her before she groaned and said, "You know what, fine. You, Sora Hikari, are so annoying."

"I'll go back with ya Kairi," Goofy volunteered. "I'm pretty clumsy, and I don't want to trip into that there water." Goofy may not have been the smartest creature around, but he was amazingly perceptive at times. He knew that Sora didn't want Kairi there, but he also didn't want Kairi on her own.

"Okay," Sora said quickly. "Midori, Donald and Mickey can head that way, while Riku and I go this way."

"You're going to stick close to the river?" Kairi asked doubtfully.

"Don't worry, I trust you to raise the alarm if I get jumped by a croc or something," Sora joked, but her glare made him quickly stop talking.

"I'll make sure he's fine Kai," Riku said. "You just make sure no one gets lost. I imagine this place can get pretty unpleasant."

She nodded her head and gave Sora a quick hug, whispering, "Be careful. I love you."

"Love you too," Sora replied quietly as he squeezed her before letting her go. He waited until she and Goofy were gone before turning to everyone else and saying, "Lets go."

**VVVVVVVVVVV**

"Is that a monkey?" Donald asked, pointing at something a little away from them.

Midori looked around and said, "No, I think that's a chimp. Keep going though, because I heard that they can get nasty."

"But I thought they were nice, cute things," Donald said. Midori could somehow pick out the confusion in him, despite his hard to understand voice.

"That's a common misunderstanding. People have them as pets when they're young and then when they get older, especially males, they get mean and wild. Sometimes they'll even attack and try to eat people. I've heard horror stories. They used to exist on my world a long time ago, but they're extinct now," Midori explained.

The three of them continued on in silence, not seeing anything of interest aside from a few odd animals. Mickey stopped from time to time when he saw an interesting plant, but aside from that, their journey was very uninteresting.

Too bad Sora and Riku couldn't say the same thing.

**VVVVVVVVVVV**

For the first fifteen minutes, Sora and Riku walked in silence. Neither of them seemed outwardly worried or tense, but both were keeping a sharp eye out for anything. They were close to the river, so not only could something come out of the water, but something could come barreling at them heading towards the river.

"So," Riku said after a few minutes. "I'm surprised you let Kairi out of your sight."

Sora shrugged and said, "I didn't want her in this world. There's just something about it I don't like. She'll be safe on the ship though, especially with Goofy. He hates letting his friends down."

"Think she'll be okay?" He didn't say the words, but Sora could hear the 'without you' in his sentence.

"I think so," the brunet said with a nod. "Besides, we can't spend every waking minute together. We'll go insane. She's much better than before when she tensed up if I was even close. I can't say I blame her reactions, not at all. It was just hard. I know she seems fine, but maybe if everything is okay at home after this she could go to a therapist or something. Just to talk to someone."

"Well, she certainly trusts you now. From what I saw—" Riku cut himself off, cursing at what he just said.

"What you—you watched!" Sora yelled, waving his arms in the air dramatically. "Do you know how freaking creepy that is?"

"I didn't mean to!" he argued. "And I didn't watch. I just saw. I was going to see if you were awake and the answer was obviously yes." There was a pause before he chuckled and added, "I think I'm scarred for life."

"I hate you," he replied dryly.

Riku rolled his eyes and said, "You've like her pretty much since she ended up on the islands. Seriously, everyone else was freaking out about cooties and you were going around dragging her everywhere with you."

"What can I said?" Sora said as he shrugged with a grin. "I saw something I liked and wanted."

"Yeah, soon you'll be running around married with a hundred babies."

Sora shuttered and said, "Not funny. Seriously, I don't even want one of those until I'm like in my 20s or something. Like at least 24."

Riku rolled his eyes at his friend and said, "Somehow I doubt that. Kairi's always wanted a big family and wanted to start young. Not teenage young, but younger than 24 I think. You're going to have to deal with that. At least she's always been open about what she wants. Girls like Midori, who clam up about everything, can be annoying."

"You like her?" Sora asked as he pushed a few shrubs out of the way.

"Who Midori? Not in the way you like Kairi." Riku seemed suddenly thoughtful about this and said, "She's cool, and a friend. Nothing more."

Sora knew when his friend was in denial about something, but he knew for a fact that Riku was telling the truth. He was about to say something else when one of the vines by his arm suddenly moved, wrapping around his arm and yanking him so that he slammed into the tree. Admittedly, he was a bit surprised, but he summoned his Keyblade and sliced his arm free.

"What the hell?" Riku asked, eyes wide as they stared at the suddenly moving plants. "Are these supposed to do that?"

"I don't think so," Sora answered warily. "I'm willing to bet it's that other girl, Lily or Lani or something."

"Lilanti," a female voice said with a giggle. They looked around wildly, but couldn't see her. A second later the grass underneath them started growing and shifting.

"Shit," Riku grumbled. "What do we—"

"Firaga!" Sora called out, causing fireballs to shoot around them, burning the vegetation under their feet. Hopefully it would stop something from shooting out of the ground at them.

"Aww, you're no fun."

They whipped around to see Lilanti staring at them with a twisted version of amusement on her face. She giggled again and said, "So, you're supposed to come with me cutie." She pointed at Sora as she spoke before glancing over at Riku, winking and adding, "But I'm sure you could come too. Maybe not for the same reason but I could definitely find a good use for you."

"I'm thinking you can go to hell," Sora replied.

"I've already been," she said evenly. "Now come with me or I'll kill your girlfriend."

Instead of outwardly reacting, Sora looked into his heart, feeling for the connection between him and Kairi. He felt her, and she seemed fairly content, though a bit worried. Lilanti was bluffing.

"That's total bullshit," Riku snapped. "You don't even know where she is."

"Maybe not," she admitted. "But that doesn't mean—"

"That the python or whatever it is cares that you're human and not some other type of creature?" Sora interrupted, finishing her sentence in his own way.

"What py—" she stopped talking, going pale when she saw the massive snake start to slip over her shoulder. She let out a loud scream before vanishing in a whirl of grass and leaves, the snake falling to the ground and not looking pleased about that.

"Well, that was anti-climatic," Riku grumbled. "Frightened away by a snake."

"Speaking of snakes, it looks pissed," Sora said while pointing at the creature that started slithering towards them. "We should go. Gate's not here."

"How do you know?"

"They would have just let us keep wandering around to discover it on our own instead of trying to drag me there if it was here," he answered.

"Fair enough. Lets go. That snake is getting way too close for my liking." Riku eyed the large reptile warily, keeping his Keyblade out just in case.

Sora snickered and asked, "Weren't you just making fun of her for not liking it?"

"You can just shut the hell up."

**VVVVVVVVVVV**

The end result of their trip was that the five of them, Sora, Riku, Midori, Donald and Mickey were all dirty, sweaty, hot and cranky by the time they got back onto the gummi ship. They didn't need Kairi or Goofy to lead them back luckily.

"Kairi?" Sora called out when he saw that she wasn't in the bridge, and neither was Goofy for that matter.

"In here!" he heard her yell from the lounge. The rest of the group followed him in, and what they saw made their mouths drop.

There was a tree in the middle of the room. Actually, it was more of a bush or something that Kairi and Goofy had obviously cut down from the jungle. They had created decorations out of tinfoil, plastic, paper and anything that they could find. There were no presents or anything, but seeing their attempt at a Christmas tree had to make everyone smile.

"I know it's not much," Kairi admitted shyly, not realizing that there was a small ribbon and glitter stuck to her hair, "but Goofy and I thought that having something would be a good idea. He's trying to pull together some food that we can all have while sitting down together. We don't have any presents or anything, but I thought that this was better than nothing."

Sora was the first to move, smiling broadly and hugging her close to him, despite being dirty and sweaty. "It's great Iri. Thank you."

His words seemed to spur everyone else into action and they all started whispering their thanks to her, and calling them out to Goofy in the kitchen. Mickey and Donald went to go check on their friend to see how everything was going before mentioning that they needed to get cleaned up.

"You guys should get cleaned up too," Kairi said to Sora, Riku and Midori. She looked at Sora as Riku and Midori walked out of the room and poked him playfully while saying, "Especially you. You stink."

Sora grinned at her before grabbing her and throwing her over his shoulder. She giggled hysterically and he playfully said, "Wanna come with me? You've got some glue and glitter in your hair." He set her down once he got to his room.

She giggled and said, "Well, we'd have to be kinda fast, but I already had a shower today so I don't need to worry about that. So okay."

Sora hadn't honestly expected her to agree, so he just stood there wide eyed for a moment before realizing that she was gone and there was a trail of clothes going to the very small bathroom. He rushed after her quickly, stripping in a hurry as he went.

_'Best. Christmas. Ever,' _he heard Roxas say in his head, and he had to agree.

**Author's Note**

I hate Miley Cyrus. I hate Much Music for playing her songs when I had the TV on as background music and now they're stuck in my head. I hate my life. Still, Canada wins for retaliation. US unleashed Miley Cyrus on the world, we unleashed Bieber. Screw all you new pop artists, I'm going to listen to my Backstreet Boys and NSync.

Anyway…all ranting aside…

Readers are awesome! Wanna know who is even more awesome than readers? People who read and review things.

Shire Folk, Shifuni, Trainalf, NRZWolf 13, BlackWhiteZangetsu, shadowwolf547, and xlittleyingfax, you guys are all awesome! Thank you for reviewing!

On a side note: the fact that a googol is a number isn't exactly common knowledge. I retain such useless facts. It's like I have a photographic memory for things that will never actually help me in life. Example: For psyc I have to remember parts of the brain. I can't. If you put just pictures of Pokemon in front of me I could probably yell you what all of their names are (…well in the first two generations anyway).

Final Note: I AM ALREADY SO FREAKING EXCITED FOR HARRY POTTER! YOU HAVE NO IDEA! Like…checking the theatre website every day now to see when we can preorder tickets online (We already can at home but not where I go to uni yet).

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	39. Going Under

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Thirty-Eight – Going Under_

"How did you get such a bad sun burn?" Sora asked with amusement as he gently rubbed the cool liquid of one of the potions he had with him on Kairi's shoulders.

"I dunno," Kairi admitted as she sat still. "I didn't think I would burn that bad from walking on a beach. I mean, we weren't even out there for all that long and this never happens at home."

"You usually have sunscreen," Sora pointed out. They were heading towards Mysterious Abyss to see if the gate to Twilight's Destiny was there, but they had been running low on supplies so they made a quick stop on a world known as Ohana. The only interesting thing that happened there was that they had met a little girl who was trying to teach her dog how to be a proper member of society. Sora wondered what type of dog it was since he hadn't seen it. They had spent a little bit of time on the beach, and it had been very hot so Kairi had worn just a thin-strapped tank top. The end result was that the exposed skin on her shoulders and chest had turned a bright red. Considering how her skin was so pale that he could trace the veins in her arms in some spots, the red stood out a lot. Along the bridge of her nose had also burned and though he knew it must have hurt, he couldn't help but find it adorable.

Kairi suddenly held his hand in her own, holding them out in front of them. Sora stared at her with confusion until she said, "I'm so pale compared to you. Doesn't that bother you? A lot of people assume that if someone is extremely pale that something's wrong with them."

Sora laughed and said, "Doesn't bother me at all. I think it makes you look unique, especially on Destiny Islands. Besides, I know you just can't tan for the life of you. For some people, burns turn into tans, but I just know that this burn will go like...dark white or something."

Kairi elbowed him gently and said, "That's not nice."

"Maybe not, but hugs make up for it." He tried to hug her, but she shoved him away.

Seeing his confused look, she said, "You're shirt will make it all sore and itchy. That's why I'm wearing this tank top. The straps are small and silk. I mean, I even had to wear my strapless bra and I rarely ever where it."

Sora looked at her with a little more interest and asked, "The cute one with the puppy paws? Or that really sexy one that I still can't believe you bought?"

Rolling her eyes, she nudged him again before saying, "Puppy paws. I can't find the other one. I think it's in your room somewhere."

"You think what's in his room?" Riku asked as he walked in, sitting on the couch opposite of them. He looked incredibly bored, but being cooped up in the gummi ship did that to people.

Kairi just looked at Riku and said simply, "My bra." She had no reason to be embarrassed about it because she knew Sora had told Riku. He teased both of them mercilessly.

"Really I didn't need to know that," Riku said with a roll of his eyes.

"You asked," she replied with a shrug before lying out on the cool couch, her legs lying over Sora's lap. "Are we almost there?"

"Yeah," he replied. "Dunno how we're gonna get around though. From what I gather, the entire world is just an ocean."

"Didn't you go to Atlantica before?" Sora asked him, an odd look on his face.

"Course we did. What does that have to do with anything?"

"Oh I get it," he said, a huge grin appearing on his face. "I'll be a surprise."

Riku tried glaring at Sora, but not even his glare could make the grin vanish off of the brunet's face. The silver-haired teen signed and said, "Kairi?"

She pushed herself up into a sitting position before scooting closer to Sora so that she was sitting on his lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck, pouted and said, "Sora." She stretch out the o and rolled the r a bit.

He stared at her pleading, expression with wide eyes before pointing at something behind them and yelling, "Look, a distraction!" Riku looked around quickly, but Kairi just continued to stare at him, now fiddling with her necklace. He had no doubt that this was an action she was conscious of and was doing on purpose. She had started wearing shirts that were cut a little lower again, and given how she was sitting on him all scrunched up, it gave him a perfect view down her shirt. He knew that she was purposely attracting his attention there by playing with her necklace.

He looked away, glaring at Riku who seemed very smug about the whole situation.

"_So make him uncomfortable,"_ Roxas suggested.

'How do you suggest I do that?' Sora asked his Nobody.

"_Make the fact that you have a girlfriend and he doesn't obvious."_

Kairi caught Sora's impish grin seconds before he leaned close to her ear and whispered, "Donald will turn us into sea creatures, most likely mer-people. Don't tell Riku." He then leaned in to Kairi's shoulder, but he didn't actually touch her skin. Instead, he just gently blew on her burned shoulders. Though his breath was warm, it felt cool against the searing heat of her skin, and it felt amazing to her. She rested her head on the top of his as she held him close, closing her eyes while making a contented noise.

She heard Riku suddenly shift and get up, seeing his embarrassed look before he left the room. That's when it occurred to her exactly why Sora had done exactly what he had done. He had made it look like he was kissing her, but he didn't because he knew her skin was sore.

"You were getting Riku back," she accused him, moving away so that she was looking at his face.

Sora grinned a bit saying, "Would I use you like that?"

"Something like that? Yes. Yes you would. Thanks for understanding that my skin hurts though and not actually touching it."

**VVVVVVVVVV**

Given that there were no established warp points on that specific world, their entrance was extremely unplanned and uncoordinated. Needless to say, they hadn't been expecting to appear on an extremely small, slipper rock and tumble into the ocean.

Sora had been the first to go since he knew what to expect. He stumbled into the water rather ungracefully, but luckily no one else was there to see it. He looked down at his blue dolphin tail with a grin, happily swimming around the water while waiting for the others. Goofy and Donald came next, already in their turtle and octopus forms. Then came Mickey.

His form amused Sora to no end. He looked like some type of odd shark and was bigger than Sora was. It was odd for the normally small mouse.

Kairi came next, and ended up falling into the ocean with a scream. She didn't have long to think about what happened though as Midori and then Riku appeared behind her. None of them seemed to realize their change until Midori suddenly let out a yell before saying, "Donald! What did you do? I'm a fish!" She splashed her dark violet fin against the surface of the water, not impressed in the least.

"Actually, you're a mermaid," the duck replied with a shrug.

It was only then that Kairi clued in that she too didn't have legs anymore. Instead, she had a dolphin tail that was a deep pink fin. She also realized that she was wearing only a pair of white clamshells over her chest, tied together with white seaweed. Her face turned the same colour pink as her fin but she dared not let go of Sora to cover herself. He was the one keeping them above water.

"I told you we were turning into mer-people Iri," he said. "Best bet is to check underwater here. I don't see it floating above the water, but you never know."

"Wait, we're going under the water?" Midori asked. "Won't we drown?"

"If we were human, yes. We're merpeople though. It takes a bit of getting used to. I actually had a fish and a mermaid show me how to swim, but they're not in this world so I guess that leaves it to Donald, Goofy and I to show you how to move."

"Great," was the first thing that Riku managed to say.

"Okay guys, so just dive under water," Sora instructed. He didn't give Kairi a chance to get ready as he dove under, taking her with him.

She let out a small scream of surprise before she realized that she was under water and clapped her hands over her mouth.

"Iri," Sora said to her with a smile, "you're not going to drown."

Kairi blinked and slowly removed her hands from in front of her face, realizing that, somehow, she could breathe under the water. She still clung to him though as Donald and Goofy appeared, helping Riku, Midori and Mickey along.

"Okay, umm, Mickey. For you to move, you're going to have to move your tail from side to side. To go in different directions, you pretty much just face that direction. Like, if you want to go upwards you can point your nose up and the rest of you will eventually go, or something like that..."

Soon Sora had them all swimming around. It was a little awkward at first, but they soon got the hang of it. Midori had the hardest time since she wasn't the best swimmer in the world, but Kairi got the hang over it very quickly. Of course, that might have been because, like when they were in Pride Land, she studied the way Sora moved (once he managed to pry her off of him) and copied him.

Riku was staring at his own gold-colour fin when he suddenly looked at Sora and motioned to Midori and Kairi quickly. Sora raised an eyebrow at him and said, "Yes, they're wearing clam shells. Big deal." Where as the shells Kairi wore were white, the ones Midori wore were black. Sora didn't really think anything of it because he knew shells, or something similar, was a norm for mermaids.

"Seriously man, it's a huge deal. Technically all they're wearing are those shells. We're completely naked aside from that!"

"No we're..." Sora trailed off when he realized that Riku was right. As a human, being naked would consist of running around with out any pants or anything else on, and whenever he went to Atlantica he had always just associated the fin like he was wearing pants with only one leg. Now that he thought about it though, as merpeople, they were naked.

And he suddenly felt self-conscious.

"This is great," Kairi said happily as she swam over to Sora and hugged him tightly. Her fin brushed up against his causing him to blush and Riku to snicker.

Sora looked away from his friend and smiled at her. "I'm glad you like it."

Goofy the turtle-dog looked thoughtful for a moment before saying, "We're going to have to swim pretty far. Cause Mickey's a shark we shouldn't have too much bothering us."

"It's really odd being bigger than the rest of you," Mickey admitted. It was certainly true, the mouse hadn't turned into a little shark by any means. If Sora had to guess, he'd bet that Mickey was actually a larger than average shark.

"Well, lets go," Donald said enthusiastically. He always liked swimming around under water.

"Hold 'er there," Sora said while grabbing the side of her tentacles without the sucker on it. Ursula had hit him with her own tentacles, the suction cups sticking to his arms. He had managed to get away quickly enough, but it had been incredibly painful, worse than ripping duct tape off of spots where the skin was thin or sensitive. "Sticking together might be the safest bet, but this place is big. It might be best if we split up."

"The king of contradictions says. Everything looks the same though," Midori pointed out. "It won't be hard to get lost."

"Maybe," Sora agreed thoughtfully.

"What if a group stayed close to here and searched in this area? Then, if it seems it's getting too late, they can go back to the ship and see if they can track anything like Goofy and I did when we were in the jungle world?" Kairi suggested.

"I call sticking close to here," Midori said quickly. "I'm the worst swimmer here, so I shouldn't go too far."

"I—" Sora looked around as Kairi took his hand and gave him a hard stare. He chuckled and continued, "I guess I'm with Kairi."

Riku nudged him and said, "We're supposed to be searching for something. Keep that in mind." He ignored Sora's glare and spoke loudly, "I guess I'll go with whoever to look."

"I'll stay with Midori," Mickey suggested. "Like she said, she's struggling a bit with swimming. Having a shark with her might deter other things from bothering her."

"Good idea," Donald agreed.

"Okay, Donald, you go with Riku," Kairi said quickly. "And Goofy, you can come with Sora and I." She knew that Donald annoyed Riku and she didn't really appreciate that Riku thought that they were going to slack off just because they were together.

"Sounds good ta me," Goofy agreed as he swam over to her and Sora.

"Right," the brunet agreed. "We'll look this way. Riku, Donald, you guys go the other way and Midori, Mickey, stick close to here. If it seems we're taking far too long to look around, head back to the gummi ship."

"Have fun Riku," Kairi said with a giggle as she swam off with Sora and Goofy, practically feeling his eyes glaring into her.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

Midori wouldn't admit it to Kairi, Sora, or even Riku, but she hated swimming. She had learned how to swim, but she never really bothered with it. Her world was cold and there was only a single ocean, the rest covered in land. A very long time before, most of the world had been submerged in water, but it became dry and cold. Some things, like the humans that lived on it, evolved to adapt to the changing world, but many things had died out. Their main water source was groundwater, and luckily there was plenty of it. Plus they were all firm believers in recycling.

Still, even though there were pools, Midori had never shown a like for water or swimming. Now, as she was submerged in water as a half-fish or whatever she was half of (a dolphin), she was extremely uncomfortable. She was out of her element entirely. Midori wouldn't say it, she was too proud, but she was thankful that Mickey had stuck with her. There was something about floating in a huge, murky area, and not being able to see into the far distance around her to see what was there that was unnerving.

"You okay Midori?" Mickey asked her, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Yes," she replied before hesitantly adding, "I'm just not a huge fan of water."

"Inside water hasn't always been my strong suit either," he admitted. "I used to be a crew-hand on Pete's ship when I was only young. That's where I first met Minnie. Later on, when I was training with Yen Sid, I had a bit of an—er—incident with water that I'd rather not discuss again. He wasn't too happy with me."

"I can't see someone who would be disappointed in you," Midori said as they began swimming farther down to see what was there. As a human, she knew that she would never be able to see what was around her as clearly as she could now. She also doubted that her body would be able to stand the pressure of being so deep in the ocean. She supposed that it was magic keeping them intact though, or maybe just the type of creature she was now.

Mickey laughed and said, "I got into a lot of trouble when I was younger. Always got growled at for being 'mischievous' as Yen Sid, and Walt told me."

"If you don't mind me asking," Midori said as she took a look around a large rock, but saw nothing and kept going, "Who's Walt?"

"Oh, he was my adoptive father, a human. He actually was the one who designed, and started building Disney Castle, you know. He died after it was finished, but he left the Kingdom to me. He said that it was up to me to keep Disney safe. At first, I didn't really take all of my duties all too seriously, but after things happen, all the parts of you that were labeled mischievous have to be pushed to the side for the greater good. I suppose that's why some people think I seem so squeaky-clean personality wise. Because I have to be."

She nodded her head and suddenly came to a stop, causing the mouse-shark to run into her. He didn't ask her what was wrong, instead looking in the direction she was.

There, in front of them, was a visibly man-made archway.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

"I think she likes you Goofy."

The dog turtle-dog was sticking close to Sora and Kairi, shooting a wary look at a sea turtle that appeared to be following them. It was a female, and no matter which way they turned she followed them. Kairi had come to the conclusion that she stated before, and Goofy was now looking at the turtle warily.

"Maybe you should go talk to her?" Sora said with a laugh, nudging his friend in the shell "It'd be amusing."

"Nah, that's okay. Wouldn't want ta hurt her feelings," Goofy said. "Remember what happened in Atlantica, Sora?"

Sora coughed uncomfortably and Kairi was automatically suspicious. She look at him and asked, "What happened in Atlantica, Sora?"

The brunet shot Goofy a glare and said, "It's nothing."

"Gawrsh Sora, when we stayed there for a little bit that pretty mermaid followed ya around all over the place. Then ya hid yourself in Ariel's grotto to get away from her after she tried ta kiss ya and you ended up throwing a starfish in her face."

"Thank you Goofy, I remember now," Sora said between gritted teeth as he looked back at Kairi. He could see both amusement and something else on her face. As he stared at her, it suddenly occurred to him what else he was seeing. She was jealous! A part of him honestly felt a little bit thrilled at the thought. The more she seemed to think about it, the more jealousy and anger Sora could see on her features.

"Kairi?" he asked, almost hesitantly.

"She's lucky I wasn't there," Kairi said angrily, and Sora was instantly relieved to realize that her anger wasn't directed at him but at the mermaid that had attempted to kiss him. "I wouldn't have thrown a starfish at her as a distraction. I would have shoved a sea urchin down her throat."

"_Ummm...is it just me or is Kairi wickedly hot when she's being all jealous at other girls?"_ Roxas asked Sora suddenly.

Sora stared at her and suddenly really noticed things that he had always known, but hadn't really thought about. She folded her arms across her chest, her eyes narrowed and her lips seemed to plump out into something torn between a scowl and a pout. The skin on her cheeks turned a slight red colour, as did the skin on her upper chest.

"She's wickedly hot when she's being all jealous at other girls," Sora agreed, a look of horror appearing on his face when he realized that he had said it out loud. Goofy had hidden himself amongst some rocks when they stopped, causing the female sea turtle to leave, but he didn't dare move yet so it was just Kairi who heard his statement.

She raised an eyebrow before asking, "I'm assuming that was supposed to be for Roxas?"

"Ummm...yes?"

"You're not going to go off and try to make my jealous just because you think it's hot, are you?" she asked, closing the space between them rather quickly so that they were chest to chest.

"Never," Sora squeaked out, "I wouldn't...I mean I..."

Kairi giggled and suddenly swam up high enough to give him a noogie before swimming away while laughing. It took Sora a second to realize what had happened before swimming after her.

Goofy watched with amusement as Sora tried to catch Kairi only for her to smack him away with her fin and keep going. That was when something caught his eye. He first checked to make sure the other turtle wasn't there to follow him before going to look. What he saw startled him.

"Sora! Kairi! Look!"

The two stopped chasing each other, instead going over to where he was to see what he was looking at. What they saw made them both gape in shock.

There was a giant, obviously manmade archway.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

"I swear to god Donald, I am going to murder you," Riku snapped as he rubbed the sore spot on his arm from where they had to rip of one of Donald's tentacles earlier.

"It's not my fault all those fish ran into us," Donald growled back. It was true, they had been swimming and a large school of fish seemed to appear out of nowhere. They had knocked Donald into Riku, and his suction cups had caught Riku's arm before ripping off.

Riku ignored him and continued swimming. Unlike the places everyone else went, which were fairly empty, the place he had Donald had gone was bursting with life. All kinds of different fish were mingling about, swimming back and forth in the water. Really, he didn't see why they were here. They were just on a big wild goose (fish?) chase. It wasn't like they were going to find—

"Holy crap," Riku said with surprise. There, directly in front of them, was a huge, obviously manmade arch. He swam up close to it, but didn't touch it, just in case.

"It's fine," Donald said after a moment. Riku looked at him curiously and the duck continued, "If it was the gate it would have some type of magic properties. This is just stone. Nothing special about it."

"Really? Then why are they here?"

"I dunno. Maybe there was parts of this place that weren't underwater before they split," Donald suggested with a shrug. He swam up a bit and said, "There's more than one of them too."

Riku swam up beside him so that he could see for himself. Sure enough, in the distance was another one, and beyond that was another one. "There's probably an entire string of them then. I bet the others are going to find some and think they've found the gate."

"Probably," Donald agreed. "I don't think it's here."

"Neither do I. That leaves two places, doesn't it?"

"Yeah. Crystal Shards and the Keyblade Graveyard."

**Author's Note**

I don't have anything to say. That's weird cause I usually like to ramble on about something. Hmm….now it doesn't feel right unless I do…

Oh! Guess who was too cool for school and already has tickets to the midnight showing of Harry Potter? Definitely not me and my friends. *Shifty eyes * Seriously, my whole dorm is planning like all Harry Potter related events. It makes me happy.

I pointed out to the one friend I have who is probably more HP crazy than I am that we're all 'OMG' at just the trailers for this one, so it's going to be like 'divide by zero' when the trailers for the second one start airing. She said not to say that because she already feels like, and I quote 'vomiting fireworks' over it. We've both decided that we're probably going to cry like little babies when that one comes out because it's literally like one of the last things that all of us held on to from when we were just kids. Now it's ending. It's actually like final closure on any sort of childhood we still had in us. It's so sad.

Anyway, onto happier things, like my awesome reviewers. I give you all a virtual butterbeer for being awesome! Shadowwolf547, Shire Folk, Shifuni, Trainalf, NRZWolf 13, xlittleyingfax.

Oh, and for the record, I'm not a fan of Miley Cyrus or the Bieb. (Fun fact, his name literally translates to Beaver in German). Actually, I'm a pretty horrible example of a typical girl. I don't like them, I don't like shopping for clothes (though I do like shoes and makeup…so I guess that counts), I don't like chick flicks (give me action movies with not plot instead any day), and I absolutely loathe Twilight. I fail. Not saying that all girls are like that, just saying it's a stereotype.

Oh god the girl next door started singing. That's a sign for me to gtfo.

Oh, btw, epilogue included, there's only 9 chapters left.

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	40. Down To Earth

_Remember a few chapters ago, a drunk Riku and Midi mocked Pinky and the Brain? Well I give you Shire Folk's complete rendition of the song. Enjoy it, because this chapter is not a happy one._

_They're Riku and Midi._

_Yes, Riku and Midi._

_One is a genius;_

_The other is a bishie._

_They're Keyblade Wielders._

_They're drinking through dessert._

_They're Riku, they're Riku and Midi-di-di-di-di-di-di-di-di._

_Before each night is done,_

_Their plan will be revealed._

_By the dawning of the sun_

_To make her the fourth wheel._

_They're Riku and Midi._

_Yes, Riku and Midi._

_Their liquor tenacity_

_Is easy to envy._

_They'll drink down every shot;_

_But the hangovers'll make 'em slop._

_They're Riku, they're Riku and Midi-di-di-di-di-di-di-di-_

_SHUT IT!_

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Thirty-Nine – Down To Earth_

It was dark, almost too dark. She felt cold and exposed, like she was forced to stand in the middle of artic-like temperatures without a stitch of clothing on her. She held her arms to her, rubbing them to try and get warm, but it didn't help.

She felt a flash of panic pass through her as she realized that she was lost in a corridor of darkness. It had been so long since she had last been in one that she forgot how cold and unsettled it made her feel. She absolutely despised the feeling.

She froze mid-step as she heard a pair of footsteps. Looking around wildly, she felt her terror rising when she couldn't spot who was making the sound. She looked back in front of her again and jumped.

"Sora," Kairi whispered in a relieved tone when she saw him in front of her. A smile appeared and she said, "Thank god. I don't like it here and—"

She cut herself off when she tried to hug him but he stepped back away from her. Now that she was closer to him, she could see something was wrong. He eyes looked cold and blank, and they were staring at her in a rather dark way.

"Sora?" Kairi asked hesitantly, trying to reach out to him. She let out a scream of surprise when, instead of embracing her, he shoved her away roughly enough so that she fell back onto the ground.

"You're a whore," he snapped at her. "You probably enjoyed what he did with you. You probably dream about it all the time. Hell, you probably nearly said his name when you were with me. You're nothing but a slut."

Tears welded up in her eyes as she tried to reach out to talk to him but he backed away from her, still giving her a look of disgust. He turned around and started walking away.

"Sora! Wait!" she cried out as her tears streamed down her cheeks, but she suddenly couldn't move. All she could do was watch as he vanished into the darkness. The next thing she knew, her wrists were bound on either side of her head with stone, as were her legs. Sheer terror passed through her as a blue-haired figure appeared above her, a smug smirk on his face.

A familiar, polished stone knife appeared in his hand, the one that he had used to cut and torture her with before, and he said, "I told you that you would always be mine." He brought the knife down towards her, and she let out a terrified scream as it came in contact with her skin. She didn't understand, if this was a nightmare why wasn't she waking up?

He was moving the knife almost artfully across her skin, making small slices and long lines. Somewhere along the line, he had started cutting away her clothes.

She sobbed as she felt him touching her and violating her all over again. Before she always knew that Sora would come but this time she knew he wasn't going to. There was nothing she could do but let him use her over and over again.

"I told you that you would always be mine."

"Help!" she screamed out. "Please help! Sora! Please." She was sobbing hysterically by now. "Naminé! Naminé can you hear me? Help me! Please!" Why couldn't she wake up?

There was a sudden flash of light and she winced when she saw blue hair still over her, but all movement had stopped. It was only after a moment that she realized that it wasn't the vile beast with blue hair, but a young woman who was looking down at her with a worried expression.

"Remember Kairi," a woman's voice whispered. "Your light will always keep you safe. You're his light, and he's yours. Nothing can ever take that away."

**VVVVVVVVVV**

Kairi jumped up, breathing heavily, terror and panic flooding through her body. She was sweating, sobbing, her hair sticking to her face, and her eyes red from crying. She hadn't actually screamed, but her throat felt sore like she had been. She quickly looked over herself, feeling relieved to see that she was still fully clothed and there were no bruises, cuts, or anything else on her. It had just been a horribly vivid nightmare.

She suddenly realized just how dark it was in her room and she quickly drew her blankets around her, curling up on her side again. She hadn't had a nightmare like that in weeks, and its sudden reappearance frightened her. Usually if she had a disturbing dream it wasn't anywhere near that graphic, and it was usually different. Of course, it could have been because she knew they were close to confronting the bad guys once and for all. It was inevitable once they found the gate to Twilight's Destiny.

No matter how hard she tried, Kairi couldn't get back to sleep. The fear and the panic just wouldn't go away. She took a deep breath and jumped out of her bed, running across her room and out the door, not bothering to close it behind her. She then rushed across the hall to Sora's room, relieved to see that there was still a small light on.

She couldn't help but remember her dream as she walked over to him. She knew for a fact that he didn't think any of those things about her, he had reassured her of that many times, but at the same time the words kept echoing in her head. She hated feelings that it stirred up in her. Sora would always come for her, no matter what, and she knew that, but her dream was still unsettling. She didn't ever want to be in that situation again.

She moved back the covers on Sora's bed, but as she slipped in beside him she couldn't help but frown. There was sweat on his forehead, and his eyes were squeezed together tightly. He was mumbling under his breath so quietly that she couldn't hear what he was saying.

Kairi put the covers over both of them but she stayed sitting up. Wrapping her arms around Sora, she managed to move him so that his head was resting against her chest, her arms wrapped around his bigger frame. Kairi kissed his forehead gently; glad to have a distraction from her own nightmare. "It's okay Sora. I'm here."

He grunted a bit, shifting in his sleep so that his arm lay across her waist and his face was pressed into her chest. She could tell that he was calming down a bit, but he was still lost in his own nightmare.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

He was always falling in his dreams. It left him feeling helpless, like no matter what he did he wouldn't be able to help anyone because he just kept falling down farther and farther. He was alone, and he felt like he was burning. It was hot and hard to breathe, and Sora was sure that he was falling into a pit of fire.

There were so many faces of people he knew staring at him as he fell. They were sad, they were pleading, they were begging him to help them, but he couldn't because he was falling. Falling deeper into the darkness and away from the light.

Sometimes he would slow down though, but he hated when this happened. He would see all of his friends, all of his family that he had failed in the past, and he would see his friends being hurt, tortured and even killed in front of him. Every decision he made tried to gravitate away from those situations though. He would do anything to keep them alive.

The only thing that he wouldn't do was trade Kairi. As horrible as it was to say, he would choose her over everyone. If he had to make a decision that led to her living, but he knew that someone else, even another close friend, was going to die in the process, he would willingly do it.

And that, he decided, secretly made him a horrible person.

As if something sensed his thoughts. He slowed down and everything started to take shape. A horrified gasp escaped his lips when he saw all of his friends splayed out in odd angles, but what really got him was that, just passed everyone else, Kairi was on the ground. Her eyes were blank, her body unmoving, and the Kingdom Key was stabbed into her chest where her heart was.

He let out a horrified yell and tried to jump forward, but the next thing that he knew he was tumbling down a cliff-side. Metal seemed to smash around him, but he couldn't move.

Looking up, he saw a woman with blue hair leaning over him, trying to say something. She then looked up in horror as Kingdom Hearts appeared over their heads.

He still couldn't move, not even when she got up to fight a dark figure in the distance. He watched her defeat this mysterious figure, but as she started rushing back to him, another one appeared, knocking her unconscious. The figure raised its dark Keyblade up before bringing it down towards her chest.

There was a flash and suddenly the figure was hovering over him, his mask vanishing. Sora let out a strangled cry of shock when he found himself looking at himself, but this version of him had hair as black as the darkest night and burning yellow eyes. He had seen this person before. What was his name? He couldn't remember. Maybe it really was him.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

Sora had a hard time breathing when he woke up. He let out a sound almost as if he was being strangled before he suddenly realized that he was being cradled against something soft and warm.

Looking up, Sora saw Kairi looking down at him with worry. His nightmare was quickly forgotten when he saw the red of her eyes, recognizing the signs that she had been crying, and he highly doubted it was because of him.

Sora managed to push himself up so that he was sitting beside her, never once taking his eyes away from hers. He knew that she wanted to know what was wrong with him, but that would come later. He needed to know what had made her cry so that he could fix it. He wanted her to smile, not to be afraid.

Though no words were said, Kairi knew exactly what he wanted to know. That led her thoughts back to her own nightmare, and the tears welded up in her eyes again. They automatically shifted so that she was sitting curled up against him, her tears silently sliding from her cheeks to his bare chest.

After a few moments of silence where Kairi started to feel better just sitting with him, he whispered, "You had a nightmare, right?"

She nodded her head and said, "I was in the darkness and then...and then y—someone was there. They pushed me away and said really horrible things. Then I was trapped and he was there and...he just would stop touching me. He just kept cutting me and-and r-raping me. I couldn't—I was alone."

Sora squeezed her reassuringly and asked in a very strained voice, "It was me, wasn't it. The one who pushed you away?"

She hesitantly nodded but quickly added, "I know you would never really do it. The nightmare, it stopped when this woman appeared. She had blue hair too, but I don't think she had anything to do with him. She reminded me that you would always keep me safe and I woke up."

Sora frowned for a moment and asked, "Did she have blue eyes? Not like yours or mine, but more of a paler colour?" She nodded and he sighed. "I saw her too. She was fighting something and someone—someone was about to kill her. Then—it was me. Maybe not really, maybe more like a dark version. He looked like he was me. He was so dark and I—but it was me. A-and before that I saw you and my Keyblade was...I had hurt you. I can't—"

"Shh," Kairi whispered as she leaned up and kissed him briefly and gently. "It was just a dream. Just like mine was a dream."

"What if it wasn't?" Sora asked fearfully. "Yours was because I killed him, but mine...what if she's real? What if that's what I'll become?"

"It'll never happen, because I won't let it, I promise," she said her voice thick with confidence. She let out a small but long yawn, and then smiled at him bashfully.

Sora chuckled and said, "You always know what to say. Lets get some sleep though."

"I'm not sure I want to," she admitted, but let him reposition them so that they were lying together under his blankets.

"Me neither, but we have to."

She fiddled with her hair for a moment and bit her lip. Sora stared at her curious before she shifted herself a bit, leaning up and kissing him gently. He couldn't help but notice that she seemed extremely shy about something though. "What's wrong?"

"Do you think we could, I mean we don't have to, but do you think we could...well...you know."

Sora stared at her oddly, and she sighed, realizing that though he was very insightful at times, he was still her dense Sora. She felt embarrassed actually asking though. Instead, she kissed him a bit deeper this time, moving on top of him.

Sora suddenly had a very good idea of what she wanted. It would only be the second time that they actually slept together, so while he definitely wanted to, it was still a bit awkward and he didn't exactly know what to do. He didn't know if he should just take her clothes off or not.

Thank god Roxas was soundly sleeping inside of him or he would never hear the end of it.

Kairi broke away from him and looked amused, almost as if she knew his struggle and embarrassment. She giggled a bit and said, "It's okay Sora, I trust you. Besides, neither of us really know what we're doing yet."

Sora nodded his head and was about to kiss her before pulling back, a worried look on his face as he asked, "Are you sure? I don't have any...protection." He blushed wildly.

She seemed to think in her head for a moment before shaking her head, "We should be okay. My time of month has been on time since I first got it without worry. It's always been regular. We'll be okay now." In reality, she knew that at this point there was a small chance it could happen. Next week that would definitely not be able to do anything.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure," she said with a nod and kissing him again, shrugging her shirt off and tossing it to the floor.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

Riku knocked softly on Sora's door before peaking in. Kairi's door had been wide open so he had looked in there first. When he saw that she wasn't there, he had rightfully assumed that she had gone into Sora's room at some point of time during the night.

He looked towards Sora's bed and saw Sora spooning Kairi, the blankets covering both of them. He didn't need to see the few articles of clothing on the floor to know what had transpired.

He was about to back out of the room when he noticed something. Neither of them seemed to be sleeping that peacefully. Both had bags under their eyes and frowns on their faces. He weighed his options and then closed the door behind him.

Riku made his way towards the bridge where everyone else waited. He shrugged and said, "They're both asleep. I don't think either of them have been sleeping a lot lately. I didn't want to wake them up."

Mickey nodded and said, "Leave them. They've been through a lot for the last little while. I'm sure we can handle looking through one world without them. It's Crystal Shard, right?"

"No," Midori replied while shaking her head. "We got the coordinates mixed up. We're over the Keyblade Graveyard."

Mickey visibly tensed up and his eyes narrowed. He sighed and said, "Alright, lets go then. Be careful, and though you may want to, don't touch anything."

"How do you know we'd want to touch something?" Donald asked him.

"Because I've been here before."

**VVVVVVVVVV**

Riku covered his eyes as the sand blew around them. Mickey led them through the large, winding cliffs down to a desert. The air was hot and dry, the cracked ground around them implying that the place had very little water.

"Are you sure this place and Destiny Islands were attached before?" he asked. "It's just so—dead here."

"Well, Sora seems to be sure," Mickey replied with a shrug. The wind seemed to stop blowing for a moment and everyone was actually able to look at their surroundings.

They were all surprised to see Keyblades everywhere. There were thousands of them stabbed into the ground, gleaming in the harsh sunlight. At the same time though, they all looked dull and dead, like the very power had been drained out of them.

As if sensing the thought, Mickey said, "Each Keyblade used to belong to a Keyblade Bearer who died in the past. Some from natural occurrences, most from war. Each person has a specific Keyblade that is their own, and the Keychains just alter them. For instance, I eventually found that the Reverse Keyblade was mine, and when I pass on that will be the one to come here. Riku, yours is The Way To Dawn, and Midori, yours is Twilight. Though Kairi prefers Oathkeeper, Destiny's Embrace would be the one to come here for her, and for Sora it's the Kingdom Key."

"There were this many Keyblade Bearers? It doesn't seem possible," Midori admitted.

"No, it doesn't. There are times though when there are many all at once. Just like how more are appearing now," Mickey explained.

"So what do you think is going to happen?" Riku wondered.

"You're all going to bow down to us, that's what's going to happen."

They all looked around, and there, with her crystal staff and a rather amused look on her face was Crysita.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

"Sora," Kairi giggled as he playfully kissed her neck. "We should go and catch up to everyone else."

"I'm sure they're going to be fine without us for a little bit longer," he replied. "I just want to lay here."

"You'd suck at a quickie somewhere," she said factually. "You get so tired afterwards."

"Don't be mean like that," Sora whined as she started to move away but he pulled her back to him. "You don't seem to complain about the reason I get so tired."

She just flashed him a quick smile before squirming with laughter as he tickled her sides. He wasn't holding her too tightly though, giving her the chance to break free. She jumped at him, knocking him to the floor before she straddled him and then started to tickle him back.

"Uncle! Uncle!" Sora called out, tears of laughter streaming down his cheeks. She stopped tickling, smiling proudly as she got off of him, instead sitting beside him on the floor.

They were in the lounge in the gummi ship, just sitting and enjoying being together.

Sora rolled over, pulling her towards him as she snuggled into him, burying her face in his shirt. They laid in silence for a moment before he said, "We should probably get up before they come back."

"Why?" she asked with confusion as she looked up at him.

"Riku and Midori will probably just assume that we had sex on the couch or something and go on about how they refuse to sit on it," he retorted dryly.

Kairi rolled her eyes and said, "Really though, think about how many surfaces that you've sat on or touched probably not long after other people messed around. You're mother had a few boyfriends, and my parents seemed to always think that they could give the having kids thing a shot."

Sora made a disgusted face and said, "Okay ew. I'm never sitting on your couch again."

She once again rolled her eyes at him, once again resting her head on his chest. They were silent for a few moments before she frowned and asked, "They've been gone a long time, haven't they?"

Sora looked up over the coffee table at the digital clock and his eyebrows furrowed together in thought. "I dunno when they left before we woke up, but even so, they probably would have come back by now."

"Do you think something's wrong?"

Sora shifted and stood up, holding out a hand to help her. There was a frown on his face as he hesitantly nodded and said, "At best, they're just lost."

"At worst?"

"They met someone extremely unfriendly."

Kairi bit her lip before saying, "We should go check on them, shouldn't we?"

"Yeah," Sora agreed. "We should."

**VVVVVVVVVV**

Riku's groaned as his eyes slowly opened. He couldn't remember what had happened. One minute, they were staring at the mass amount of Keyblades and the next he was waking up with a terrible headache.

No, that didn't seem right. Something happened in between. Something—

A scream of pain caused him to jerk and try to turn to see what was happening, and that was when he realized that he couldn't move his arms. They were bound behind him in a cool, crystal pole. He tried to move, but he felt his body protest the movement as a harsh pain flashed through him. He took several deep breaths before slowly moving his head around. He looked around just in time to see Crysita strike Midori again.

"Leave her alone!" Riku growled at her. He tried to make it sound intimidating, but the pain that flashed through him made it come out as more of a croak.

Crysita looked at him, and as she came closer, he couldn't help but notice, now that he knew who she was, that she and Midori were almost identical. The only difference between them was that Crysita's hair was a little bit shorter and was a deep violet colour, while Midori had longer, dark green hair. Even the smug expression on her face was the same as one that Midori would have given him if she had proved him wrong about something. It was unnerving.

"Why do you care?" she asked him. "You know she's not a hundred percent human, right?

"What do you want with us?" Mickey snapped, and Riku was glad that he interrupted. He knew that Midori wasn't exactly like the rest of him, and while he tried not to think of it, when he did it made him feel terribly uncomfortable.

Crysita turned to Mickey and said, "I don't want any of you at all. In fact, I could just turn you all to crystal and have to end at that, but you know what, I like a challenge. Call me stupid for leaving a few of my enemies alive, but there's something about the risk of you trying to stop us that's just...thrilling."

"If you don't want us, why are we here?" Donald demanded.

"Sora," Goofy answered Donald.

"That's right," she said with a nod. "I know for a fact that he'll come running when he thinks you're in danger. See, I could let him get to the gate on his own, but what good would that do me? He won't open it for me. The only way I'm going to get him to do it is if I break him down. That was what I wanted the girl for. Jorix took care of that for me though. I didn't approve of his methods, but it worked."

"What worked?" Riku demanded.

"It started to break him," Midori said weakly, still sore from when her other half had lashed out at her.

"Yup," Crysita agreed with a nod. "I also found a way to send him horrible nightmares. Something usually seems to combat them and makes them not as bad as I'd like, but still, watching him break down as he thinks that he's going to kill Kairi is hilarious."

"You're sick," Riku growled.

She ignored him and turned around, a gleeful expression on her face. She took a few steps forward and called out, "I know you two are there. You walked passed the sensors I set up. Come and join the party!"

He prayed that it wasn't who he thought it was there, but his prayers went unanswered as Sora and Kairi appeared in front of him, Sora standing protectively in front of Kairi, both with their Keyblades in hand.

"Aw, come on," Crysita said with a teasing grin. "Don't give me those looks of disgust."

"Let them go," Sora demanded.

"Get rid of the Keyblades," she replied in just as strong of a tone, her teasing and sickly playful attitude gone. "If you don't, I start breaking things, and you and Roxas should remember how painful that can be, Sora."

Sora hesitated, but his Keyblade vanished, Kairi's following a second later.

"So," Crysita said. She motioned to their friends that she had captive and said, "Sarlio and Lilanti failed in bringing you in. That's why I'm here instead of Carverin. If you want it done right, do it yourself. I'm here to offer you a trade. All of your friends for you."

Kairi tensed up behind Sora. She knew exactly how this was going to play out if Sora didn't have any other choice he would gladly sacrifice himself.

Sora reached back and gripped Kairi's hand tightly to make sure that she was still there as he glared at the cruel girl before them. "How about you let them go and I won't shove my Keyblade through where your heart should be."

"No, no," Crysita said, as if talking to a small child. "We can't have that. I'm not here to fight you." Her crystal staff appeared in her hand and Kairi let out a horrified scream as she stabbed it into Riku's arm. He let out a yell of pain, and Sora jerked back with surprise.

"Look," the purple-haired woman said. "You come with me. They go free. No strings attached. No me turning them into crystal or leaving them trapped as they are. They go free."

He knew it was too good to be true, but he couldn't just let them die, and he knew that she would kill them. His own life wasn't worth the lives of six others.

"Alright," he said, "but I want to see you let them go."

"Fair enough," she said and the crystals vanished, causing everyone to fall to the ground. Cryista then made a swirling motion with her staff, and crystals seemed to shatter the ground around Sora. Kairi let out a scream as her hand was ripped away from his and she was thrown back, knocking over a few Keyblades from the impact. They all watched the crystals grow high around him and twisting so that the opening at the top was sealed.

Kairi shot off of the ground, summoning her Keyblade again as she ran towards Sora. Crysita just smirked darkly and waved at the girl, vanishing without a trace. There was no give-away swirl of crystal or anything like the other's elements, she was just gone, and so was Sora.

Her Keyblade fell out of her hand and tears welded up in her eyes. She suddenly knew how he felt when he watched Jorix take her away, unable to do anything. She let him down. Now he was gone.

Though she knew her other friends were still there, she felt panic grip her. This was the first time in a little less than a year that she had been without him, aside from a few times where she knew in her heart that he was safe. The first time that he wasn't just off for a few minutes with Riku or someone else. He was really gone.

She hadn't realized that she had started panicking and sobbing, muttering sentences that didn't make sense before she started hyperventilating. She didn't realize that Donald had cured them all, and she didn't realize that Mickey used the sleeping spell on her, causing her to slump back into Riku's now healed arms.

All she knew what that he was gone.

**Author's Note**

Okay, first thing, Kairi's freaking out at the end is actually only a SMALL bit because of what happened to her before. When she really comes to grips with what happened shit is going to hit the fan. It's going to definitely be an OOC moment from the actual games, but with her personality in this and how things have turned out, it's kinda been coming.

I'm pretty sure that Mickey's Keyblade is actually called Kingdom Key D, or something like that, but I don't like it, hence why I use Reverse Keyblade. I suppose I'm just shortening it from Reverse Kingdom Key, so it's all the same.

Yes, Sora was kidnapped. Not Kairi. Take that typical 'damsel in distress' plot.

So I was just at meal hall (like cafeteria when you live in dorms for those who don't know) and I saw a guy wearing a necklace from KH (Roxas' pendant). I visibly did a double take and he gave me the weirdest look of life. Then I pretty much ran away because he looked sketchy and I didn't want to be murdered.

Anyway, randomness aside…my reviewers! I love you all to death because of your awesomeness. Thank you to Trainalf, xlittleyingfax, NRZWolf 13, Shifuni, shadowwolf547 and Shire Folk.

Also you should all take the Harry Potter sorting quiz that I found. It's insanely accurate because it's been developed by a psychologist and is actually used in research of some sort. Pretty much it psyco-analyzes you. Ravenclaw all the way! I have three really close friends, and all of us like Harry Potter. I'm Ravenclaw, one's Hufflepuff, one's Gryffindor and the last one didn't take the test yet but everything else she's done has been Slytherin so we're all hoping. It's actually pretty funny.

The midnight showing of Harry Potter is ALREADY sold out here. That's how h-core people from Atlantic Canada are about Harry Potter. I am one of those people who has a ticket and who will wait in line for hours cause it's fun.

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	41. All These Lives

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Forty – All These Lives_

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

His cerulean blue eyes slowly started to open, fluttering open and closed for a few moments before he scrunched them together tightly. He let out a groan and curled up onto himself, bringing his knees to his chest and wrapping his arms around his legs.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

He couldn't remember what had happened. One minute, he was passing through some sort of portal and the next he was—wherever he was now.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

The tapping got louder, echoing around him. He squeezed his eyes tighter as the sound got louder and more rapid. Finally, he couldn't take the sound anymore. His eyes snapped open and he shot up into a sitting position and he yelled, "Stop it! Stop! I'm awake already!"

The tapping completely stopped, and he breathed deeply to calm himself down. He let out a groan, resting his face in his hands before the memories rushed back into his conscious mind. He remembered going through the portal, he remembered going through the desert, and something there had caused him to start aching. Not physically, because he couldn't physically ache at the moment because there was nothing physical about him, but it still hurt.

He took a moment to look around, still confused. He pushed himself up so that he was standing, nor bothering to straighten any of his clothes. He knew where he was.

Taking a few steps forward, the sound of his footsteps echoed loudly around him as they made contact with the coloured glass beneath his feet. He glanced at the figure that was stretched across the image, eyed closed, spiky brown hair in his face and the Kingdom Key resting in his visible hand.

He walked to the edge of the round, stained glass platform and looked around. There were other ones of his friends, family and other people, but they all appeared to be blurred, as if his eyes couldn't focus on them. He knew that wasn't the case though, because he could see everything where he was just fine. Something had to be blocking them.

Normally, he could get off of the blue tinted floor to the other ones around using the glass stairs that only seemed to come from this plat. The easiest one to go to was the pink-tinted platform that had Kairi's image on it, Destiny's Embrace in her hand, and the grey-tinted platform that had Riku's image on it. He rarely went over to Riku's, but he often spent time on Kairi's. He wished he knew why he couldn't get off of the platform this time.

Roxas was still aware of Sora. He could still feel him, but whenever he tried to talk to him, he was distracted by some random thought, like he couldn't get focused on anything.

Something was blocking him from Sora too, and that unsettled him more than anything else. It had to be something physical, because he could still feel Sora, he just couldn't connect with him.

Roxas sighed as he slumped down, sitting so that his legs were hanging over the edge. He was worried. He had all the right to be too, because his Other had been taken prisoner by their enemy and now he couldn't connect with him. The endless thoughts of what could have been happening plagued him.

He tapped at the glass he was sitting on, wondering for a moment where the tapping had come from earlier. He supposed it could have been something that Sora was hearing, he couldn't tell.

Roxas ran his hand along the smooth surface when suddenly a small pain shot through his finger. He hissed and cursed, bringing it up in front of him to see that it was only a small, smooth cut and not very deep, it had only hurt because he wasn't expecting it. He looked around to see what had cut him, and that was when he noticed something odd. There was a chip off of Sora's blue-tinted platform, but it didn't just form a hole where he could see the long drop down to another one.

No, instead, there was something red glowing beneath.

If asked, Roxas couldn't have been sure why he started picking at the hole, ripping it out and making it larger. Surprisingly, it seemed that every cut that was created healed a second later. The red one too had a crack in it, and it revealed something else.

Finally, he stood up and stared at what he had done, bloody hands healing. There were four layers including Sora's. One blue, one red, one green and one purple. The question was, why would there be three other platforms hidden by Sora's?

A sudden loud thump startled him, and he whipped around to see what it was, letting out a small gasp as he did.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

Scratch. Scratch. Scratch. Scratch.

Her indigo eyes slowly started to open fluttering open and closed for a few moments before she scrunched them together tightly. She let out a small groan and curled up onto herself, bringing her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around her legs.

Scratch. Scratch. Scratch. Scratch.

She couldn't remember what had happened. One minute, she was passing through some sort of portal and the next she was—wherever she was now.

Scratch. Scratch. Scratch. Scratch.

The scratching got louder, echoing around her. She squeezed her eyes tighter as the sound got louder and more rapid. Finally, she couldn't take the sound anymore. Her eyes snapped open and she slowly got up into a sitting position and said, "Please, stop!"

The nose stopped, and she breathed heavily, bringing her legs up to her chest and resting her chin on them. She had no clue what had just happened, she had no clue what the noise was and she had no clue where she was.

Closing her eyes again, she tried to concentrate, to remember what had happened. Everything was so blurry, filled with incomplete images and lost memories. That was when it all hit her and her eyes snapped open once again.

Looking around, she realized that she was in her white room in the old mansion in Twilight Town, though she didn't know why. The walls were still littered with images, some she recognized and some she didn't. Those she didn't know were still drawn in the same style as the other ones, implying that she supposedly drew them, but she didn't remember drawing them.

Though Naminé was horrified that Roxas, through Sora, had been taken prisoner by their twisted, sick enemies, she didn't focus on that. Instead, she put her mind at the task at hand, seeing why there were images that she didn't know in front of her.

She took one off of the wall and stared at it. It was a close-up drawing of Sora and Kairi, who looked a little bit older than they did now. Kairi was looking down at something sadly, tears drawn onto her face, while Sora was looking away, his face drawn in an angry expression.

Naminé set that image down before looking around more. She found one with what looked like every member of the Organization in the background and Midori scribbled into the front, her eyes closed and her black hair falling in her face.

She set that picture aside and went to the next one. Here she had to pause and stare. Three armored figures started back at her from an image that she had supposedly made. She flicked the page over and saw that the tallest figure had removed his helmet. His eyes were closed, his head bowed so that his brown hair was cover part of him. Naminé studied him for a moment before coming to the conclusion that, though she had never seen him before, something about him looked extremely familiar.

She flipped to the next page, and this time the one that was clearly female had her helmet removed as well. Her hair was blue, and her eyes were closed, but even so, Naminé knew that she had seen her somewhere before too. She knew she had. Or maybe it was Kairi who had. There were so many memories from when she was only little that not even Naminé could find drifting in the darkness of her heart.

She flipped the page again, and what she saw made her gasp. The third figure, he looked exactly like Roxas. She quickly grabbed a drawing of Roxas that she had and compared the two. They were identical. For some reason though, she was reluctant to label him as Roxas. She picked up one of the crayons that were on the table (when did those get there again?) and tapped at the page. A second later, as if on it's own will, her hand started moving. She frowned at the name that she had written. It didn't seem right.

Vanitas.

No, no that wasn't right. The V, that was right, and the s at the end. Like a game of hangman, she wrote the letter V followed by a blank, and then an N and a T, and then a blank and an S. They were vowels she was missing, she knew that much.

She set the book down on the table, frowning. Instead, she picked up an empty book and grabbed another crayon and began drawing.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.

His cerulean blue eyes slowly started to open, fluttering open and closed for a few moments before he scrunched them together tightly. He let out a groan and curled up onto himself, bringing his knees to his chest and wrapping his arms around his legs.

Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.

He couldn't remember what had happened. One minute, he was passing through some sort of portal and the next he was—wherever he was now.

Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.

The banging got louder, echoing around him. He squeezed his eyes tighter as the sound got louder and more rapid. Finally, he couldn't take the sound anymore. His eyes snapped open and he tried to move, but that's when he realized he couldn't. He had never been lying down, and he had never been able to curl up at all. His hands were above his head, locked entirely in crystal and attached to a dark, dirty wall. He couldn't tell where he was, and he couldn't remember how he got there.

It was dark, almost too dark for his liking. Still, he tried to focus, and he tried to remember. That was when everything came rushing back. Crysita. He was trapped...somewhere. She had forced him into a dark room, and she had knocked him out again. This wasn't the first time he had woken up since then.

He had been in their clutches for only a few measly hours, but it felt like forever to him. Crysita, Carverin and Lilanti were making up for all the trouble he had caused them. Each one took their turn, striking him with their physical weapons, their fists or their powers. Crysita was apparently keeping track of how much pain he could take and how much blood he could loose, because she always stopped it before they could kill him and healed him so that it would start all over again.

The door opened again and he tensed up. The light that came in blinded him, and he instinctively closed his eyes. He heard the door close again, but he dared not open his eyes yet. He knew someone was in the room with him.

A groan of pain escaped his lips when he felt a thin, metal object pick the top of his arm and drag downwards. It wasn't a deep stab, but it hurt like hell. The giggle that followed was what made him open his eyes. Lilanti.

"There they are," she said happily, moving her weapon away from his arm, using it to push his hair away from his eyes. "I like your eyes, they're a really...beautiful colour. I mean, I like mine more, but yours are pretty good."

Sora didn't say a word, he just glared at her.

She pouted at this and said, "What? Not talkative now? Don't tell me we beat all the fight out of you already Mr. Keyblade Bearer! Don't want that yet." Again, he didn't say anything, and it seemed to irk her more than anything else, so she slapped him across the face with her empty hand.

"I don't like being ignored," Lilanti said with a sigh. "Especially not by cute boys and—hey...there's an idea! What would torture the perfectly whipped, goody-two-shoes boyfriend than the thought that he cheated on his girlfriend?" He didn't give her any sort of reaction though, knowing that she wanted him to lash out at her. Again, she didn't like the silence. She frowned and suddenly he felt an immense pain coming from his arm. He couldn't help but cry out. She was slowly twisting something into his arm, but he dared not look to see what it was.

"You know," she started, "if you didn't ignore me, you wouldn't have to hurt. See, the thing is, I have way more experience than you're little girlfriend. I mean, sure, she got screwed by Jorix for quite a while before you showed up, but she didn't get to learn any technique. I can do way more than just lay there though." As she spoke, she got closer to him, pushing herself against him and resting her arms over his shoulders. He looked away from her, and though this didn't impress her at all. She gently pushed at his already very sore arm, and he let out another cry of pain. That was when she kissed him.

At first he was too stunned to do anything, because of all things he wasn't expecting this, and to be honest he was already feeling sore, sick and dizzy. All he did was stand there, and not move a thing or react in any way. It was only when her hand started to go to his belt, when her defenses were down, that he moved. His arms were bound, his feet were not. They kept him too disoriented to even try to use his Keyblade mentally, so they thought that they had incapacitated him.

Lilanti let out a scream of pain as she hit the ground roughly. He had managed to kick her back a bit before swinging his leg but and kicking her as hard as he could in the abdomen. He spat on the floor and glared at her.

She growled at him angrily and got up, wincing a bit as she did. She moved her hand and suddenly he felt something wrap around his neck. He felt himself gagging as something squeezed tightly, not letting up. He began to feel light headed, and he was seeing spots in front of his eyes.

"Lilanti! Stop it!"

His eyes closed and he slumped against the wall, only his crystal bindings keeping him up.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

Click. Click. Click. Click.

Her indigo eyes slowly started to open fluttering open and closed for a few moments before she scrunched them together tightly. She let out a small groan and curled up onto herself, bringing her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around her legs.

Click. Click. Click. Click.

She couldn't remember what had happened. One minute, she was passing through some sort of portal and the next she was—wherever she was now.

Click. Click. Click. Click.

The clicking got louder, echoing around her. She squeezed her eyes tighter as the sound got louder and more rapid. Finally, she couldn't take the sound anymore. Her eyes snapped open and she slowly got up into a sitting position breathing heavily.

Confusion coursed through her as she looked around. She was in her familiar room on the gummi ship, and for some reason that was extremely unsettling. She couldn't remember how she got there or why she was even there. No matter how many times she had tried to sleep in her room she always ended up in Sora's.

And suddenly everything came back to her. She let out a horrified, strangled gasp as she struggled to get out of her bed, falling on the floor with a loud thump as she did. Her elbow hurt like hell, but she ignored it, jumping off of the floor and scrambling to her door, rushing across the hall. It had been a nightmare, that was all. She always had nightmares when she was away from him. He was fine. He'd be sprawled out across his bed, probably either lost in a dream or in a very light sleep, waiting for her. It was just a nightmare.

He wasn't there when she opened the door though. His bed was completely untouched.

She felt her breath catch in her throat as she carefully walked across the room. She sat on his bed in silence for a moment, breathing in and out deeply, trying to calm herself down. Kairi couldn't stop the tears from building up though. She let out a sob as she curled up onto herself again, clinging to his pillow. It smelled like him, or rather, like the shampoo and soap that he used.

Kairi wasn't sure how long she was in there, but it was brighter in the room by the time Riku found her. He sat beside her silently, resting a hand on her shoulder. They stayed like that for a few moments before Kairi said, "We have to get him back Riku. We have to."

"We will," he assured her. "It might take some time but—"

"No," she insisted, her voice distressed. "Riku you don't understand. These people—they'll hurt him. They'll torture him. They're already hurting him." She placed a hand over her heart. "I can feel it. He's afraid. He's already been hurt so many times Riku. These people are willing to kidnap and do god-knows-what to children. So what's gonna happen to him? What's already happened to him?"

"Nothing," Riku insisted. "We'll get him back. I promise you. Now, come give your big brother a hug."

She chuckled weakly and managed to sit up. She hugged him tightly, resting her head on his shoulder. She couldn't help but notice how it was much broader than Sora's, and there was definitely more muscle, but at the same time, it felt wrong. She liked the fact that Sora's muscles were more subtle, like a swimmer's or a soccer player's. He wasn't as...overbearing as Riku. She came to the conclusion that one of the long lasting effects of being raped was that men who were a lot bigger than herself intimidated her, even though Jorix hadn't really been much bigger than her.

She felt hopeless. She remembered what Jorix did to her. Not just rape her, but rather take a polished piece of stone and start carving into her skin. He beat her, he tortured her. It was enough to make her mind and body numb later on. She had told Sora about that, but she had never told him any details, stating that she went numb almost immediately. That was a lie. She had been very much awake for him torturing her and violating her in every way possible. It wasn't that she didn't want to tell him, or that she thought he'd suddenly be disgusted and leave her. It was because she didn't have it in her to talk about. Just rape was sick, but what he had done to her had been even more sick and twisted. It had been enough to make her body practically shut down on her, going numb from shock.

She didn't want anything horrible like that to happen to anyone else, let alone Sora.

Riku wrapped is arm around Kairi comfortingly when he felt her start to shake again. When she looked up at him though, it wasn't fear or pain or anything else that he saw. No, she was shaking because she was angry. He had never seen her so angry before.

Kairi stood up, her fists clenching painfully as her long nails dug into her palm, drawing blood. She ignored the bit of pain and said, "They'll pay. They'll pay for every fucking thing they've done or anyone. I swear it." She looked away from Riku and walked over to the window in Sora's room, watching the stars pass by quicker than normal as they sped towards Crystal Shards. "We'll get you back Sora. I'll make sure of it."

**VVVVVVVVVV**

Lilanti whimpered and rushed away from the room, deep cuts on her body purpled by large bruises. Crysita watched her go with an annoyed face before turning and staring at Sora. He was unconscious, his clothes soaked in blood, bruises visible around his neck and cuts everywhere on his body.

She sighed and took out a powerful potion, first throwing it on his wounds before forcing him to drink the rest. He gagged, but slowly started to regain consciousness. He looked up at her, confusion evident on his face.

"I need you alive," she explained, "and Lilanti was about to ruin that. I also need you semi conscious."

"You can go to hell," Sora snapped at her, his throat hurting as he spoke. "I'm not doing anything for you."

"I could threaten you with your girlfriend," she said thoughtfully, "but that's old and over done. I have a better idea. You wait here, I'll be back in a minute."

Sora watched as she got up and wandered out of the room, and he couldn't help but feel nervous. The logical choice would have been for her to use Kairi against him, but if she thought she had something better she could use...well...it made him nervous.

He jumped a bit when the door swung open. Crysita was there, with Carverin and a reluctant Lilanti behind her. She strode forward and said, "Carverin, drag that table over here and Lilanti, put those bottles on it. I don't want to break them when he starts thrashing."

They silently went to work, and Sora felt a thrill of fear pass through him. She grabbed one of the bottles, and it looked disturbingly similar to the potion that had been used on his hands.

As if sensing his thoughts, Crysita said, "I saw Midori's memories of using a potion to heal your hands that Maleficent fried. Then I remembered some interest things that were in that book, some definitely not so nice." She pulled the cork off of the bottle. "This is not going to be very pleasant."

Sora couldn't reply as she suddenly put the opening of the bottle in his mouth and tipped it back while holding his nose, forcing him to swallow the concoction. He felt like his throat was being torn apart from the inside house, and he instantly felt sick and dizzy. He was gagging on it, and he hadn't realized that his body had indeed been jerking, trying to get away from the source of the pain.

He gagged and heaved, breathing heavily while leaning forward. Crysita forced him to look at her and she said, "That's a powerful combination. It's a nasty combination including a very potent alcohol and a very powerful drug. You're going to start feeling it within minutes. I'm going to force you to drink more. You're body will start to reject it, but I'm going to give you so much that you're body will start to shut down. You'll slowly die, and it'll be painful and agonizing. It'll be like slowly burning from the inside out."

He couldn't reply again as she forced him to drink more of it. This time, he gagged strong enough that she had to back off as he threw up, but it didn't disgust her at all. Instead he just forced him to drink even more. He had never felt so sick in his life. His stomach felt so sick that he couldn't even throw up, but every tiny motion he made caused him to gag. His head was pounding and his skin was burning. Everything was out of focus and spinning around him. He could barely keep his eyes open, his body desperately wanting to sleep.

He thought it was over, but she forced more down his throat. She kept doing it, until he was slumped against the wall, just barely conscious.

"I have a cure," her voice echoed loudly in his head, but he couldn't comprehend what she was saying. The only thing that he could comprehend was that he wanted the pain to stop. He couldn't even tell a person what his name was at the moment. " If you do what I want, I'll give you the cure. On our way of course. It's your choice."

He suddenly understood. She could make the sickness and the burning go away. Already his mind couldn't remember where it had originally come from.

"Okay," he managed to croak out before slumping down, held up by only his arms and breathing heavily.

"I knew you'd see it my way," Cryista said with a smirk. She looked around at Carverin and said, "Carry him. We're getting into Twilight's Destiny tonight."

**VVVVVVVVVV**

There was paper everywhere. Pictures were posted all over the walls, overlapping like mismatched wallpaper, not a spec of the white wall showing through on one of the four walls. The floor was covered with them, and Naminé was still drawing.

It was surprising that her arm wasn't aching, or that her pencil crayons and markers hadn't worn out yet. Somewhere along the line her crayons had turned into more precise instruments to use so that her drawings could look more realistic, more detailed.

She drew quickly, faster than she ever had before with a sense of urgency like none other. There was something hidden just beyond her images, something that didn't quite made any sense. It was there, she could feel it, but she just couldn't reach it. The truth was evading her somehow.

Naminé stopped drawing for only a moment when she stared at what looked like a younger version of herself. She shrugged it off simply as her interpretation of herself if she was young.

There were Organization Members, her friends, their new enemies, unknown figures, strange creatures, Heartless, Nobodies and so many other things. She drew images of Keyblades that she had never seen before, peaceful images, and horrific ones. She drew Sora chained to a wall, she drew him crying with pain on his face. They were disturbing images, but she couldn't stop. Every outline, stroke, highlight, and shade told her a story, putting together the pieces of something bigger.

Suddenly she stopped drawing and held her notebook out in front of her. There was an archway made up of stone and crystals. Sora was kneeling in front of it, but from the way she had drawn his clothes and the parts of his skin that she could see, he was dirty, beaten and bloody. He wasn't kneeling because he wanted to, he was kneeling because he couldn't get up.

And suddenly Naminé knew exactly was what about to happen, but it was too late. They were already out of time.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

Roxas stared at the knight that he knew was named Ventus, wondering why he wouldn't remove his helmet. Roxas knew what he looked like, and as eerie as it was, it actually didn't bother him all that much that the other person was identical to him.

"Do you know why this is happening?" Roxas asked him, motioning towards the layers of stained glass.

"You have both come to the realization lately that Sora's heart has many secrets in it," Ventus offered. "But there are more than you or him coul even dream of. You know about the masked boy, the dark one. He comes from my heart unfortunately. Still, there are more secrets hidden here than you realize. They're not what's important now though."

"What's important then?" Roxas wondered.

"Sora is in grave danger. I know you can feel it. His pain, his terror, his confusion. He needs your help for than ever Roxas."

"What can I do?" he asked.

Ventus tilted his armour-clad head before saying, "You need to find your own light to help him. You've been suppressed again, but that was from necessity. You weren't ready to be on your own at the time. You weren't strong enough. You are now though."

"What are you talking about?" Roxas demanded angrily. "I'm just a Nobody! There's nothing I can do to help him!"

Ventus chuckled and said, "That's what you think, is it Roxas?"

"Of course it is, it's true," he replied while crossing his arms in front of him.

Ventus took off his helmet, and even though Roxas knew that this person was identical to him, it was still strange and unnerving to see.

"No Roxas, it's not true," Ventus said, amusement playing out on his features for a moment before he became serious again. "You're more than you think. Something happened a long time ago, and it made you what you are now. It kept you alive though. Naminé is the same as you. She died when she was only young, and everything that she was, heart and soul, went into Kairi so that she could live on when the time came. The same thing happened to you, but years before even her. Roxas, you're not Sora's Nobody. You're his twin brother."

**Author's Note**

That revelation came a bit earlier than last time. Oh well. Did everyone have a good Halloween? I know I had fun!

Yes, Kairi is pissed as all fuck now.

I wanted to try a little bit of a different style in this chapter. That's why each sections seems so similar. Wanted to give meaning in repetition a try. Also I purposely made it so that it goes Roxas, Namine, Sora, Kairi, Sora, Namine, Roxas.

Also wanna know what's really strange? All my life I've written the word colour as 'color' and then out of nowhere I started writing it 'colour'. Just like I started writing Neighbour, favourite and a bunch of other things with 'our' instead of 'or'. I never really noticed it until my friend pointed it out. All I can say is WTF? Oh well, I am Canadian eh?

Thank you to everyone who reviewed! Tranalf, Shifuni, shadowwlf547, NRZWolf 13, and xlittleyingfax, you guys are aweomse! Have my left over Halloween candy! I can't eat them, they may put me over my 1000 calories in a day.

Yes, I'm being sarcastic.

And yes, I know I answered this in a PM, but I do in fact know what a Wackspurt is! Without having to look it up. Why? Clearly I'm awesome.

ALSO OMG NOT LONG TIL HARRY POTTER! The soundtrack sounds epic. Every time I see any of the trailers I want to beat Ron. Really, I never liked Ron, but movie Ron pisses me off something bad! I wish he would have left in the books and stayed away.

Sorry about all my Harry Potter spazzes recently, but look at my screen name! Of course I love Harry Potter! Please review!

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	42. Awake And Alive

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Forty-One – Awake and Alive_

One step, two steps, stop. Rush forward behind a large boulder. Stop again. Wait for a moment. Try not to be seen. Go. Keep running. Take a deep breath. Nearly there. Keep running. A few more steps. A bright light. The cries of pain.

One second too late.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

Kairi held Sora's sweater tightly around her, the chilling air assaulting her as she stood at the edge of a large cliff. It was night in this world, and though Kairi had the feeling that it would normally be fairly cold there, the fact that it was nighttime didn't help in the least. She could have brought her own sweater, and it probably would have been a better idea to have the more form-fitting garment on, but she found Sora's sweaters warmer and more comforting.

She hadn't noticed how much that they had changed over the past few months. When they were younger, Sora had been a good head taller than her for the most part, but by the time they had returned home to each other came around, they had been the same height. Actually, if his hair wasn't included, she had probably been just a tiny bit taller, and Sora had only been a bit bigger than her. How though, his shirt was long on her and baggy in most spots, and now that she looked back, she now always had to reach up to hug and kiss him.

A small smile appeared on her face. They were growing up, and though it frightened her, she was also terribly excited about it and welcomed the thought warmly.

Her smile turned into a frown. Growing up and getting older wouldn't matter if she lost Sora. The thought made her both scared and angry. There was no way she could ever go on without him. Not as they were now at least. Maybe, in the future if they had children and something happened, maybe then she could keep going, knowing that her and Sora's children needed her.

There was no doubt in her mind that Sora was the only one she would ever want to actually be with. She had claimed that after he rescued her from the ocean and became her friend, despite being at the age when cooties were just becoming a huge problem.

She needed to get him back. Kairi could feel him in her heart, and she knew that he was in pain. What frightened her more than anything else was that he was scared. He was hurt, he was tired, he was scared, and he was sick.

A tear streaked down her cheek. She was tired, and she was scared. She knew that she had no choice but to face her fears though. What she found most surprising though was how angry she felt. Her anger overpowered her fear tenfold. She would make these people pay for what they did to him, her, their friends, and everyone else.

She had wanted to run right into battle, but Riku had to physically hold her down while everyone else calmed her down. He had come from the incident with a few bruises, which she didn't apologize for. As much as she hated it, they couldn't just go charging in. Now she knew why Sora seemed so impatient when being forced to wait to do things.

She heard light footsteps, and looked around. Mickey appeared beside her, staring out at the area below them with a hard look on his face.

"We'll get him back," Mickey assured her, "and we'll get rid of them all while we're at it."

"That's kind of dark for you, you majesty," she said, ignoring the fact that he was just voicing her thoughts. "Well, maybe not your words, but how you said it."

"No one is perfect Kairi," he answered. "These people, they disgust me. People say that there's always some good in a person, even if it's deep inside. I don't believe this. Sometimes you can't find good in some people. These people, they aren't even pure dark or anything, so it's not a question of darkness or light. I met someone made of pure darkness a long time ago though, and he wasn't as twisted as these people were. He was...something else. He played mental games with people, he was intelligent, and he was something fierce. I'm not sure how to describe him really."

There was a pause before she suddenly put her hand over her heart and whispered, "He's here."

"Who is?" Mickey seemed startled.

"Sora," Kairi replied. "He's here now. That way. He's in so much pain." She could feel the dizziness that Sora felt, wanting to retch like he did. If anything, it just made her angrier. She knew that she was only feeling a fraction of what he was feeling.

"Can you lead us to him?"

"Yes."

Mickey nodded and said, "Lets go then. We'll get the others. We don't have any time to waste."

Kairi nodded and looked back over the cliffs as she whispered, "We're coming Sora. This time, it's my turn to save you. It's my turn to be strong. This time, I'll fight."

**VVVVVVVVVV**

Sora was barely conscious as Carverin dragged him along roughly. His mind was swimming. The concoction that Crysita had forced him to drink was slowly kicking in. He could feel sharp pains in his stomach but at the same time he wasn't really paying attention to that since whatever it was made him act as if he was both drunk and high. If he had been sober and in his right mind, he would have wondered how he was possibly still alive when he had been forced to drink so much, but then he would have rightly assumed that there was something else added into it to keep it from killing him any faster than the poison that was in it was supposed to.

He blinked, looking around at the shining crystals around him. There were so many colours in so many different shapes. He couldn't help but stare and find them beautiful.

Carverin suddenly stopped walking and let go of him, causing him to fall to the ground. Sora was vaguely aware that there was pain from where his body smashed into the ground, but he wasn't focused on that. Instead, he was staring intently at a bright pink diamond that was beside his face. As he stared at the gemstone, he realized that Kairi would love it. He managed to reach up, though his arm felt heavy like lead, and took it into his hand. He twisted it around, admiring how the light shined through it, giving it a more iridescent look.

"Leave it Lilanti."

Sora looked around and realized that the blonde had been about to snatch the stone from his hand, but Crysita stopped her. He watched as she straightened up and asked, "Why? He could try to use it as a weapon."

Crysita stared at her oddly and said, "He is completely out of his mind. If he can still function enough to think of using that as a weapon, he might as well just use his Keyblade. Trust me, he's not going to do anything that we don't want him to. Now, start helping Carverin drag the rest of those children here."

Lilanti grumbled something under her breath, but went along with what her superior said anyway.

Sora looked back at the pink diamond in his hand, twisting it around and admiring how beautiful it was as he lay on the rocky ground.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

"I'll be damned," Riku said as he stared at the scene before him in awe. "Those small archways in Mysterious Abyss are nothing compared to this."

"I'll say," Midori agreed as they stared at the structure. There was an archway, but it was larger than they expected. It could easily fit a massive structure like Disney Castle inside of it. It was completely smooth, with twisting, vine-like patterns cut into it and shining stones haphazardly decorating it. Between the arches was a tall, strong steel gate. As beautiful has the archway was, the steel gates seemed very imposing.

Kairi suddenly let out an odd, strangled sound. She moved towards the edge of the cliff and covered her mouth with her hand. Riku looked at her closely and saw that her eyes were watering with tears. He followed her gaze and stared with shock.

Sora was lying on the ground on his stomach, not moving. Even from their position, they could see that though the magic on his clothes was strong, it hadn't bee enough to stop the ripping to occur. Everything on him was splashed with dried blood, and they could see a bit slowly pooling on the ground beside him. What scared them most was the fact that he wasn't moving.

The same rage that he felt when learning that Kairi had been raped passed through him. Neither of his friends deserved what they had been given in any way, shape, or form. He felt the dark side of him stirring from his anger. He wanted to make these last three monsters die painfully.

"He doesn't look alive, does he?" Goofy blurted out, causing Donald to quack angrily and hit him with his staff. Kairi, surprisingly, did nothing or said nothing at these words.

"Stupid thing would be in the last place we look," Riku grumbled and motioned at the gate. "I don't understand though, if this is supposed to be nearly impossible to get through, why would they assume that Sora could get through?"

"Sora's different," Mickey explained. "Remember what I told you about Keyblade initiation ceremonies before? He's destined for something greater. Maybe he can open that with his Keyblade. How they would have known that is a completely different thing though. The best I can gather is that someone told them."

"But who?" Donald asked warily. He didn't get an answer, but he didn't expect one.

Kairi wasn't listening to them. Instead her eyes were locked on Sora's still frame. She couldn't get Goofy's words out of her mind. He couldn't be dead yet, she would have felt it. Plus Crysita, Carverin and Lilanti needed him to open the stupid gate.

Kairi closed her eyes and tried to concentrate. She thought of Sora, she focused on him, and then she could feel it. He was not only alive, but he was conscious. Her eyes opened and she stared down at him again. She felt her breath catch in her throat as she finally saw them him shift. He moved a bit onto his side and slowly looked around behind him, his eyes meeting hers for a moment. Even from far away, Kairi knew that he knew she was there. She could see the relieved smile on his face as he turned back around and slumped to the ground.

She held her breath as two large, dark portals appeared. A second later what looked like strange, black Nobodies appeared, dragging out a huge cage from each portal. Then a horrified look appeared on her face. There were children in them, dozens of them. She knew that there were probably many more that couldn't be saved, but these ones, while they all seemed scared, were physically fine.

"We have to get them out," Mickey said suddenly, causing everyone to look at him. He was focusing on the cages. "There are three things we need to cover down there. Sora, and each cage. There's six of us, so we should be fine. We have to wait until they start whatever it is they're going to do, that way we can sneak up behind them."

"Teams?" Midori asked suddenly, having stayed silent the entire time.

Mickey thought about it and said, "The easiest way to do this would be to go from over there." He pointed to the cage farthest away. "That way the cage will partially block us so they don't see us right away. Riku and I will then make a break to the cage that's over here. Midori, Goofy, you two are going to be in charge of that cage. Kairi, Donald, you two get to Sora. You two are the best ones to find out what's wrong with him and heal him."

Naminé appeared beside Kairi silently and said, "I can go ahead and stay with Sora. They're probably going to move him soon, but they won't know I'm there." Kairi nodded, and the blonde vanished again. It was only when she appeared kneeling beside Sora that Kairi felt she could breathe a little easier.

Then Carverin and Lilanti appeared again. Crysita motioned to Sora, and Carverin roughly picked him up, dragging him towards the gate.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

"So Sora," Crysita said to him, though her voice sounded both muffled and echo-y to him. "You're going to bring your Keyblade out and open that nice little gate for me."

He looked over at her and said, "That's a big gate. What are you going to do with them?" He didn't clarify who he was asking about, nor make any motions, but she knew what he was asking.

"Children are extremely useful."

"Why? For their pure hearts? Kairi has a pure heart. She could still kick your ass though."

"I doubt that. As for them having pure hearts, the answer is both yes and no," she answered with a shrug. "The fact that they don't have much darkness in it makes it better, but we don't want them for their hearts. We want them for their energy, their life force."

Sora squinted at her, his head swimming. He suddenly felt another presence, Roxas, who was whispering to him about something. Though Sora had no clue what he wanted, Roxas was in his right mind, he wasn't, and he trusted Roxas so he let him speak.

"That's why your powers are ridiculously strong?" Roxas asked, though it looked like Sora was talking. They all just attributed the voice change to the alcohol and drugs in his system. "You can shift things that shouldn't be malleable, you steal the life away from things! That's how you do it, isn't it? You take the life force from other people."

"It's true," Crysita conceded as they came closer to the gate. "Everyone has the ability for magic somewhere in them. So we just take that magic, and anything else that makes a person strong or powerful from them and use it our selves. They're kind of like our little batteries. Children work the best because their magic potential is higher. Things seem more magical when you're little because they are, you are."

Roxas was about to reply to that when Sora inadvertently took control again. He started at silently.

"So, take your Keyblade, and open that gate," Crysita said and gave him a shove towards the gates. They were close enough that Sora stumbled into the gate itself, groaning as his already sore body hit the metal bars. He was about to summon his Keyblade, if only to get them to leave him alone, but he didn't get the chance. The gemstones in the arch started to glow, and soon the metal gate was doing the same. He stumbled back, falling to the ground.

"What's happening?" Lilanti asked with surprise.

"I have no idea," Crysita answered in the same tone.

"Maybe we didn't need the Keyblade after all," Carverin suggested. "Maybe we just needed the Keyblade Master."

Sora wasn't listening to them though. The strong light burned his eyes, but he couldn't look away from it for some reason. Suddenly, Naminé appeared in front of him. She put her hands on his face and said, "You're hurt badly Sora, even worse than when you hit your head a while back. Close your eyes so you don't hurt your eyes too."

"But—"

"Don't worry, I'm here and I'm not going anywhere. Just close them." Sora stared at her for a split second before closing his eyes. As he did, a loud, creaking sound was heard echoing around the almost empty cliff sides.

The gates were opening.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

"What," Midori asked, "just happened?"

"I have no idea," Riku replied. "It looked like the gate just…reacted to him. Is that possible Mickey?"

Mickey shrugged and said, "Maybe. Not much is known about Twilight's Destiny anymore so it's very well possible."

Kairi could see Naminé trying to shield Sora, but there was only so much the transparent girl could do. They had moved over so that they were by the gates instead of on top of the cliffs. Crysita, Carverin and Lilanti were ignoring him now though, instead staring at the gate in awe.

"What now?" they heard Lilanti ask.

"Recharge your power, and then we go in," Crysita replied with a shrug.

"What about him?" Carverin asked, kicking Sora in the side. Sora just groaned and moved away from the source of the additional pain.

"I don't know if we need him in there or not," she replied honestly. "Never mentioned anything about it. Just in case though, I'll give him the cure for the poison. He'll still be out of his mind for quite a while though." She rummaged through her things before taking a flask out. She knelt by Sora and forced the liquid down his throat. It burned and he coughed and choked on it, but then he just slumped down to the ground.

"Who?" Lilanti asked hesitantly.

Crysita looked at her oddly as she stood back up and said, "I have no idea what your talking a bout."

"But you just said—" Carverin kicked her and glared at her, so Lilanti let it drop.

"We'll just leave him here," the violet-haired girl said after a moment of silence. "Worst case scenario, his friends catch up and try to heal him. They'll have fun with that. Even without the poison, there are so many different, separate things that they'd have to magically siphon out of his blood that it'd take hours, and I'm pretty sure none of them know that much healing magic. Recharge your power and let's go. You two can share that one."

"What's she doing?" Kairi whispered, alarmed as they moved to the different cages.

"I don't—"

All of the children in front of them started to glow lightly. The light then left their bodies, twisting in the air and going into Crysita while the children fell to the floor of the cage in silence. The same thing happened to the other one, though Carverin and Lilanti had to share. It made sense that Crysita was always more powerful than the others. She always took nearly twice as much power from their victims.

"Oh my god," Midori said while clapping her hand over her mouth, her eyes wide with shock.

"What?" Riku asked her, nudging her slightly.

She hesitated then said, "They take their energy…their power. That's exactly what those creatures do back on Forbidden World. That—they're almost the same."

"That's what probably happened!" Riku exclaimed. "You were infected, but something else happened, probably trying to split you into a Heartless/Nobody combo, but instead you were both just changed into something human, something not."

"Would you two shut up," Kairi suddenly snapped. "They're going to hear us. It doesn't matter what they are or what Midori is. We need to get Sora out of there, now."

"Wait until they go in," Mickey instructed them. "They said that they were going to leave him here."

"What can we do for him though?" Donald asked. "I don't know how to siphon blood with magic. I'm not a healer."

"We'll think of something," Kairi interrupted. She hated the fact that the children in front of them were so still and quiet, so she chose to pretend that they weren't there at all. Instead, she waited until the three had walked into the gate before sprinting out and running to Sora's side.

Naminé looked up at her and said, "They drugged him and I can smell alcohol too. I don't know what else they might have given him though. She cured him of the poison that was slowly killing him but I can sense easily a dozen different things in it."

"It was only onnnnnne thing, Na-min-eh," Sora said, opening his eyes and weakly pointing at her. "It burned." Naminé didn't point out that his sentence made no sense at all.

Roxas appeared beside them and said, "I didn't know at the time. Whatever they gave him is powerful though. His thoughts are flying everywhere and he only notices the pain every once and a while, but when he does it's insane."

"Kairi!" Sora exclaimed, suddenly realizing that she was there. He reached up to her, and she carefully moved him so that his head was comfortably resting against her chest while she hugged him. They stayed like that for a moment before he said, "The blonde whore kissed me Kairi. I'm sorry. I kicked her though. I kicked her real good. She got mad and did allllll of this." He pointed at the various amounts of new scars on his arms. "She's a whore. You're not, you're beautiful. I'm sorry for cheating."

She felt anger course through her as she rocked him back and forth and said, "It's okay Sora. You didn't do anything wrong. You'll be okay. I'll be here for you like you were here for me."

**Author's Note**

Yes, this chapter is shorter than the others. It's just where I had to end it though. As amusing as a drunk Sora would be, this isn't really the place for amusement because this chapter is shorter, and the next one is as well, I'll probably update fairly quickly. The ones after that are a bit longer though I believe.

Thank you to Trainalf, Shifuni, shadowwolf547, BlackWhiteZangetsu, Shire Folk and NRZWolf 13 for the reviews!

For some reason I just had to type the word 'reviews' like five times before I got it right…

Also dear weather: I hate you. I really don't want to miss class tomorrow BUT if there's going to be 50 plus millimeters of rain falling in the next 24 hours I might not be able to make it there. And I HAVE to go to my Sociology class. I skip it way too much as is. Seriously though, there's no exams, only two essays, and the prof was asked to teach the class and doesn't even like/care about the subject. It's boring as all hell.

…I mean to all you high school students: Never skip class in university. It's a bad thing and no one does it.

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	43. Never Say Never

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Forty-Two: Never Say Never_

They had no choice but to retreat to the gummi ship with Sora. He was just far too injured and (unwillingly) intoxicated for them to try and cure in front of the gate. He was slumbering on his bed, Kairi sitting at his side, staring off into space. The only other ones in the room were Roxas and Naminé, who both refused to go back into their Others until they knew for a fact that Sora was alright.

Roxas stared at his Other silently from where he sat at the end of the bed. He wondered if it was true, what Ventus had told him. What if, all along, he had actually been Sora's brother, not his Nobody? That would raise the question about why Sora didn't actually have a Nobody, but that wasn't the point.

To think that he had a life of his own was beyond anything he could ever wish for. He liked Sora, he really did, and he was thankful that, of all people, he had to be trapped within him. Sora never let him fade away. He grasped onto Roxas, making him feel real, making him feel not just needed, but wanted. Brothers, especially twins, would have been perfect.

He wondered how this mysterious Ventus knew that though. There were so many mysteries surrounding this character that he could barely keep up with them.

Roxas shifted his eyes to Naminé, who sat on the other side of Sora's feet against the wall. She had a thoughtful look on her face, staring at the brunet intently. To think that she could be in the same situation as he was made him wonder. There was no way it could be coincidence if that was the case.

Sora groaned and shifted, his eyes fluttering open. He winced in pain, and his eyes were still unfocused. Kairi moved closer to him, and his eyes automatically shot towards her. He stared at her for a moment as his eyes started to widen and he shot up, or at least, he tried to. He ended up struggle and fell backwards with a groan of pain.

"Calm down," Kairi said as she knelt beside him, resting her small hands on his shoulders lightly in an attempt to keep him down. "You're hurt and—"

"I let them in," Sora said, horror lacing through his voice. Kairi winced a bit at the sound of his dry voice as it cracked. There was no doubt that his throat must have been killing him. "I let them in Kairi. We have to go. We have to stop them!" He managed to sit up and started to get out of bed but ended up stumbling onto the floor, just lying there with a look of defeat on his face.

"You're in no condition to leave! Let alone fight!" He was just like dead weight so she couldn't lift him up. Instead, she laid down beside him so she was staring at his eyes. She didn't like what she saw when she did. She didn't like his look of pain and defeat. He looked so helpless just lying there staring at her with an almost pleading look.

"I let them in. I let everyone down. It's all my fault." Then, like a small child, he moved closer to Kairi, pressing his face against her collarbone as he hugged her. "It hurts."

"What hurts?"

"Stomach, throat, head, everything."

Roxas and Naminé had been silent to that point, kneeling down in front of the two. Roxas frowned at this and said, "The poison or whatever it was that Crysita cured him of was supposed to practically eat him from the inside out. It probably did a bit of damage but not enough to harm him fatally."

Kairi nodded her head and hugged Sora back. She managed to sit up and move so that her back was again the bed and Sora was slumped against her. She ran her hand through his hair and winced a bit when he shifted, feeling something sharp dig into her leg from his pocket. She didn't want to move him, so she reached down and dug into it, revealing a beautiful pink diamond.

"I got it for you," Sora mumbled against her. "It's so shiny." He was staring at it with a childlike wonder. He shifted a bit to touch it but just groaned and once again hid his face.

"Thank you Sora, it's beautiful," she said with a sad smile. He didn't say anything, and if it wasn't for the fact that she felt him blinking every once and a while against her shoulder, she would have thought he fell unconscious again.

"I have an idea," Roxas said suddenly. "For some reason, whatever happens you guys physically doesn't effect us when we switch, so I can take control for Sora. That way we can get back out there."

"If Sora wants to take control again there's nothing you can do about it," Kairi pointed out. "You would just switch."

"Unless I go inside with Sora," Naminé spoke up. "I can keep him distracted in there, maybe even try to use magic to fix him or something. I don't know."

"Yeah, that's an idea," Kairi agreed. "What do you think Roxas?"

Roxas shrugged and said, "It's the best we've got. Sora's right, we have to stop them."

Kairi gently shook Sora and he managed to move and look up at her curiously. She helped him sit up a little more and said, "Roxas is going to take over. That way we can stop them and you can still rest."

Sora nodded but continued to stare at her oddly. She was about to ask him what was wrong when he leaned in and pressed his lips to her. She let out a surprised sound, but she didn't pull away. Instead she kissed him back, maybe to humor him, or maybe just because she missed him.

"Really guys?" Naminé asked. They weren't even kissing heavily, more like a prolonged peck. "Is this really the time?"

Sora looked over at Namine tiredly, pointed at her and said, "It's always the time to look at shiny things."

Naminé blinked slowly before turning to Roxas and asking, "Did I really volunteer to baby-sit this?"

Kairi nodded her head and helped Sora stand up. It was hard, but he wasn't just dead weight anymore. He managed to stand up on his own, but she still had to help him walk as he leaned a bit more weight on her than he normally would.

"It'll be okay," Kairi whispered to him. "Everything will be fine."

**VVVVVVVVVV**

"So what's the plan?" Riku asked as they walked towards the gateway that was still opened.

Kairi looked around at Roxas, who shrugged and said, "I dunno, run in, hope we don't get caught, and try to beat the shit out of them? Also, shut the hell up Sora!"

"What's he doing?" the redhead asked with interest.

"Singing," Roxas replied warily. "He won't stop singing, and when he's not under water he seriously sucks at it. It's like, once he wasn't physically the dominant one, the aches went away and instead he's just drunk as fuck."

Midori looked at him skeptically and said, "Your situation is just too weird for life. You're essentially schizo."

"No we're not," the blond shot back. "If we were you would still be looking at Sora and seeing him here. I look different."

"And can be sober when he's drunk as fuck apparently," she replied.

Roxas glared at her and said, "He's not drunk as fuck. Whatever they put in him seriously messed him up. It might even be permanent."

"She didn't mean anything by it," Riku snapped at him, "so leave her alone."

"Come on fellas," Mickey piped up, "this isn't the time to fight. We need to be united to defeat these guys."

They all headed through the glowing gate. Roxas wasn't sure what he expected to find on the other side, but it definitely wasn't what they saw. He had been ready to see a final piece of a word that looked like a cross between Destiny Islands and Twilight Town. What he wasn't expecting to see was a dead, broken world with nothing but flat found and a huge, crumbling castle. The gate itself acted like the gates to the castle, and Roxas was willing to bet that outside of them there was nothing but darkness. The world had literally been shattered apart.

"Where do you think they went?" Goofy asked, looking around curiously.

"Inside?" Kairi suggested.

"If there's something hidden here, it'll probably be in there," Mickey agreed. "Either so deep that you'll never find it, or so high up that you'd be caught before reaching it."

"That makes sense," Midori said with a nod. "That way, whoever tries to take whatever is so important to hide, might have the chance to find it even take it, but they won't be able to get away with it."

"We don't know what the structure is like inside though," Riku pointed out. "For all we know, the floors are falling apart or maybe the walls or ceilings. That place is huge, and they could be anywhere."

"Well," Roxas said slowly, "one of us needs to sneak in and scope it out." Something was drawing him towards the castle, he could feel it. He needed to get inside there. Not just to save whatever power was inside. He had a feeling that there was another reason he longed to go inside.

"You volunteering?" Riku asked him sharply.

Roxas glanced over at him with a rather unimpressed look and said, "Yes, I am." He glanced back at the castle, a determined look on his face. "I can get up to one of those balconies up there. Then I can try to sneak through another way and see if I can find them. I'll go to one of the windows and signal you guys to come in if it's safe. If I'm gone longer than a half an hour, sneak inside." Without another word, he started to walk away from them.

Kairi quickly caught up to him and grabbed his arm. He smiled at her and said, "Don't worry, Sora will be fine. Naminé's trying to help him."

She nodded and reluctantly let go of his arm, letting him go on his own.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

"Hakuna Matata, what a wonderful phrase. Hauka Mataba, ain't no passing crazy..."

"Sora, if you don't shut up I am going to shove my notebook down your throat."

Sora looked around at Naminé, blinking with surprise. He pointed a finger at her and said, "You shouldn't be so crazy. It's not like you."

"What am I like then?" Naminé asked him.

Sora flopped to the ground beside her and said, "You're quiet and submissive. You could have destroyed Marluxia if you had wanted to. Hey, how do I remember that? Meh, not the point. The point is, things you draw can become real, and you can mess with people's memories, or at least mine and Roxas'. You rarely get outwardly angry unless it's with me, Kairi or Roxas, and you'd rather sneak in the shadows and manipulate to get what you want but you don't, you do what others tell you to."

"I—suppose that's fair to say," she conceded. "You're an honest guy Sora, but you're nice, so I know that you don't mean anything bad by any of that."

He nodded and laid back, staring up at the scenery above them. It wasn't much, just what looked like dark fog and a point of light in the distance. He frowned for a moment, standing up and stumbling towards the side of the stained glass platform that represented his heart. He looked down and asked, "Why do you think mine's way up here. There's none above me."

She shrugged and said, "You're different Sora. You're…something more. I knew your heart was special when I first met you, that was why I tried to trick you into saving me. I know now that you would have kept going if you knew anyone needed help, I didn't need to trick you, it's just what I do. Too bad I can't trick whatever they put in out of you."

"Can you draw it out?" Sora asked her, swaying back and forth dangerously. Naminé grabbed his arm and yanked him away from the edge. He laughed before stumbling back to the ground. Whatever he had been forced to drink, it had done more to him than physically mess him up. If that was all that was wrong, he would have been fine in there with her.

"Draw it out?" she repeated slowly.

"Yeah. You have special powers too. Think about it, the sketchpad isn't magical, neither are the markers or whatever. It's you. You draw it, you picture it, you put your magic into it, and it's real," he said with a nod.

To say that Naminé was stunned at Sora's insight would have been an understatement. Everyone had always focused on her ability to alter memories in the past, never bothering to pause and think about what else she could do. Now that he said it (she was sure he wouldn't be able to figure that out normally) though, it made sense. There was nothing magical about the paper that she made more and more sketches on. Not everything she drew became real, only the things she really focused on. Her mind started focusing on an image, trying to think of how to draw Sora without anything wrong with him.

"Lay down."

Sora looked up at her oddly, held up his arms and said, "Nami, I know you're sort-of Kairi making you sort-of my girlfriend because I am sort-of Roxas, but I can't do that."

Naminé was surprised that she didn't feel embarrassed about his words, more amused than anything else. She rolled her eyes and said, "I'm not going to take advantage of you. I'm going to cure you."

"Okay," he answered, accepting her words as they were. He closed his eyes, and as she started drawing, he slowly fell asleep.

"You'll be better when you wake up," she muttered as she drew frantically. "I don't know how, but you will be."

**VVVVVVVVVV**

Roxas carefully climbed up the edge of a broken wall. It was steep, but he could run up the side of a skyscraper, so it wasn't a big deal for him. His plan was to keep scaling the grooved walls until he could reach the ledge of the window and get inside. The window itself was already broken, so if he was careful enough in avoiding the glass inside, they wouldn't hear him if they were anywhere near there. If he tried to force his way in another way, they might.

He finally reached the ledge he was going towards, and yanked himself up so that he could see inside. It was dark, with only the pale light coming in from outside. Though there was no moon, nor was there a sun out, there had to be something just behind the clouds lightening this darkened world up.

He managed to careen himself over the shards of glass still protruding from the window and over the broken glass on the floor. He landed in a squatting position, not moving as he listened, trying to hear anything. This world was eerily quiet. Most people took noise for granted, because there was always some sort of noise. Even when all the lights and TVs were off in a household, there was still the faint hum of electricity. Even in a dense forest, the quiet could be almost grating, welcoming the sound of crickets, the wind moving the grass and trees, and the ocean beating against the shoreline.

This place though, there was no sound at all. Not even the smallest breeze was moving anything, and there was nothing alive to make any sounds. It was just cold and dark. Pure silence was more deafening and maddening than constant noise, and it made Roxas feel a little nervous. He felt as if something else could hear just his soft breathing.

He finally straightened himself up and took a step forward, wincing as the sole of his shoe came into contact with something metal on the ground. He winced, though the sound wasn't loud, and took a step back, crunching the glass on the floor. Roxas sighed with annoyance and looked at the floor, trying to see what he had stepped on the first time. He squinted in the dim light, seeing what looked like a metal shard of some sort. He picked it up carefully, and realized that it wasn't a shard at all, it was a pendant.

Roxas brought it close to his face, startled to see that it was a crown identical to the one Sora wore around his neck. This one was dusty and old looking though, as opposed to the one Sora actually took care of.

He stared at the smooth surface before turning it around curiously. What he saw made him gasp. The pendant has his name written on the back, just like Sora's had his name on it.

Roxas looked around with alarm. That was when he realized that he hadn't just stumbled into a normal room. He was in a nursery with two cribs.

He looked around and quietly headed to the dresser, seeing something glinting on top of it. He recognized it as a picture frame, an expensive looking one at that, and picked it up to peer at it. What he saw made him even more surprised than the pendant.

In it was Sora's mother, a huge smile on her younger face, her dark blonde hair held up in a bun and a beautiful summer dress on. Beside her, with his arm around her waist, had to be who Roxas was assumed was Sora's father. Sora and his mother had no pictures of him in their house, but just from the mischievous smile on the man's face and the spiky, brown hair on his head, Roxas knew that this man had to be Sora's father. No, not just Sora's father, his father too. What startled him most about the picture was how pregnant Sora's mother looked.

He turned it around and managed to get the picture out of the frame. Like he expected, the back was labeled, something that Sora's mother always did. It was dated a few months before Sora's birthday, but what it said made Roxas realize something. Ventus had been telling the truth about him and Sora, he had to be.

Raiden, Ayame and twin baby Hikaris.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

"He's been in there too long," Donald said with a frown crossing his arms in front of him. "It's been over a half an hour."

"Not since he actually went in," Riku pointed out, his eyes focusing on the castle unwaveringly. Though he and Roxas didn't see eye to eye, his best friend did share a body with him, so he had to be worried.

"Riku." He broke his intense gaze on the castle and looked back at Kairi, surprised by the stern voice she was using. He met her eyes, expected to see worry and fear in them, but that wasn't the case this time. Instead, there was a rather determined look across her face mingling with a bit of anger. He knew that she was worried about Sora, Roxas and Naminé, but he had the feeling that she was getting rather annoyed with waiting.

Though Riku could admit beyond the shadow of a doubt that he was not in love with Kairi anymore, not in a romantic way, he still couldn't help but find himself thinking that she looked rather attractive when she was pissed. Now he could see why Sora liked to tease her.

"What do you want to do?" he asked her.

"I want to go in," she replied firmly. "I don't want him to be in there alone. I want to fight."

"We should go," Mickey answered after a moment. "He could have walked directly into a trap for all we know."

"I won't let anything happen to him, not this time," Kairi said, more to herself than anyone else.

Midori put a comforting hand on her shoulder and gave her a weak smile. She sucked at trying to comfort people, so that's as far as she went.

The six of them carefully headed towards the castle, not realizing that someone was watching their every move.

**VVVVVVVVVV**

_'Roxas,'_ Sora whispered to him. _'Are you okay?'_

"Yeah," he whispered aloud, glad that he suddenly didn't feel as alone in the darkness. The corridors of the castle seemed to close in around him in silence and darkness. He wasn't used to it anymore. To hear another voice was a relief. "Are you? You sound more coherent."

_'Naminé did something,'_ Sora said. _'She said that I suggested trying to use her creation powers instead of her memory ones. She drew me as healthy, and I am. I feel bad though, she's exhausted.'_

Roxas smiled at that and think, 'That's my girl.'

Things were silent for a moment before he suddenly felt panic flare up inside of him. He heard both Naminé and Sora starting to ramble on quickly before he suddenly felt an odd pulling sensation. A second later, Roxas found himself back on the stained glass platform beside a horrified looking Naminé.

"Is he okay to be out there?" Roxas asked her with worry.

"Yeah, I got everything out of him and cured his wounds. He should be good. There's something wrong Roxas, with Kairi. Both Sora and I felt it," Naminé said. She couldn't help but remember the last time that she wasn't with Kairi and felt so frightened.

Roxas wrapped an arm around her and said, "It'll be okay. Sora won't let anything happen to her. Not this time."

**VVVVVVVVVV**

Sora dashed down the corridor, knowing instinctively where his friends were. He knew that he was probably running into a trap, but he couldn't leave his friends. It was his greatest weakness, and it had been used against him again and again.

He skidded around a corner and came to a sudden stop, there, standing in front of him, was Crysita, staring at him with a rather stunned look.

"Where are they?" Sora snapped at her.

At the exact same time she asked, "How are you even standing?"

There was a pause, Carverin and Lilanti appearing looking just as confused. The angry look vanished from Sora's face as he asked, "Wait, if you thought that I wasn't even moving, then why would you take my friends?"

"Take your friends?" Crysita repeated. "We haven't seen your friends."

"No, but I have."

They all looked around and Sora let out a strangled sound as he saw Maleficent. He had completely forgot about her. It wasn't that she frightened him, it was that there, behind her in cages of green flames was Kairi, Riku, Midori, Mickey, Donald and Goofy.

**Author's Note**

Another shorter one…I know. We're pretty much at the end game though! I did promise to update ASAP because the other one was short too. I think the next one's longer. Pretty sure…

Oh my god shut up with the drunk singing people! Not everyone goes out and gets drunk every Friday!

Thank you to everyone who reviewed! Shire Folk, Trainalf, Shifuni, shadowwolf547, and NRZWolf 13. You guys are awesome as hell because you always read and review. Really if I could I'd send you all real cookies but whatev.

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	44. All Hell's Breaking Loose

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Forty-Three – All Hell's Breaking Loose_

Maleficent's cool eyes looked down at those before her with a superior smirk. This was all too easy. The idiots had done all the work by breaking down the Keyblade Master and his friends, slowly destroying them or any lifelines that they might have developed with the other Keyblade Bearers. Then, she sat back and let them locate the gateway to Twilight's Destiny, doing all the work at capturing the Keyblade Master and forcing him to open the gate for them. Now though, she didn't need them anymore.

She glanced at everyone in turn, smirking when she realized that none of them knew what she had figured out. They were here, trying to find the power that laced through the world, but they didn't know how to get it. She did. It had taken her a long time to discover not only how to collect the power, but who could use it. It was very limited. That led her on a quest to find the one who could use the power, and the answer, when she had found it, had been very vague. She knew now though, and they didn't.

Now she had the keys to getting what she wanted.

"You really thought it'd be so easy as to just walk into a castle and take what you want?" Maleficent asked them, her tone smooth and chiding. "A glass heart, perhaps? Fools, the real power lies beyond this castle."

Crysita's eyes narrowed and she approached Maleficent, completely ignoring Sora now, and said, "You think that I'm a fool? I know that the heart only pinpoints the power. Funnels it down so that the raw power can be used. I'm not dumb."

"Then you must know that the candidates to use such a power are extremely limited," she said with a smirk, resting one hand on top of the other on the sphere of her staff. "None of you can just use it."

"What?" Lilanti asked, looking at Carverin and then Crysita. "She's lying, right Crysita? You said that we'd all get a share in the power."

Crysita didn't say a word, that's when Lilanti and Carverin knew that she had been hiding something from them all along.

Sora was being ignored by all of them, giving him the chance to slip close to the wall and rush towards his friends. There were times he was very thankful that his enemies had enemies aside from him.

"Hey," Sora whispered to Kairi, who smiled broadly at him and got as close to him as she could without touching the fiery bars.

"You're okay," she said with a huge smile.

"Not complaining, but how?" Midori asked. "What she gave you was powerful."

"Naminé," he answered before looking at the bars. He looked around at Maleficent to make sure that she wasn't paying attention.

"Ahhh, so you knew but you didn't tell them. Pray tell, why are you trying to get such a power? And how did you plan on doing it if you knew that you couldn't control it?"

"Our motives are ours," Crysita answered smoothly. "We work for a greater cause than you will ever know. Kingdom Hearts will be ours."

"What about Kingdom Hearts?" Goofy asked, looking down at Donald and Mickey curiously.

"Later," Mickey answered. "Sora, try to put out her flames with Wateraga."

"I don't think my magic's..." He trailed off as Roxas and Naminé spoke up.

_"I'll help,"_ Naminé insisted.

_"Me too,"_ Roxas agreed.

They both concentrated their power from their individual beings to Sora, who summoned his Keyblade and called out, "Wateraga!" The feuding villains barely had the chance to look at them before the cages were surrounded in water. The flames were extinguished, sending steam around the room, and Sora said, "Come on, move!"

They all barely had the chance to realize that they were soaked and free before they started running. Sora was leading the way, not really sure where he was going, but trusting his instinct. There was still confusion behind them, the enemies not knowing who to fight.

"Where are we going?" Kairi managed to cried out as she reached for Sora, grabbing his arm when they came to a stop at a cross section.

He glanced back at her quickly and said, "I don't know how I know, but I know where to go. It's up. Just like Mickey said. Up or down. This time it's up."

She nodded and the group continued running. All of them were beginning to lose count of the amount of stairs that they had run up, their knees and lungs burning.

As they passed through an intact, but old looking, door into another hall, they all slid to a stop. This hallway looked brand new, as if it had never been touched by either darkness or light before. The floor was a dark marble, the walls a bright white with gold and silver patterns carved into the wall.

"I've seen this place before," Sora and Riku both said before looking at each other in surprise.

"I saw it in a dream," Sora said after a moment of silence. "Roxas and I were watching my mom in a place that looked just like this. A little different, probably a different part of the castle, but similar."

"I saw it in a dream too," Riku replied, folding his arms in front of him. "Actually, I was watching you and Roxas watch your mom in a place like this."

"Ummm..." Goofy looked down at Donald, who shrugged with a clueless look.

"That's kinda creepy," Midori said, voicing all of their thoughts. "There must have been a reason for it. To show this place."

"We must be heading in the right direction then," Mickey said. They all heard a loud crash behind them, looked back for only a moment before hurrying down the hall.

At the end was a huge door that almost looked like it was sculpted into the wall. It looked heavy, made from the same white stone as the walls with gold and silver carvings on it. Sora's eye traced the drawing and realized that it was a heart with a crown on it.

Donald and Goofy ran at it, trying to push it open, but it didn't move an inch. Instead they ended up flopping to the ground.

"Gawrsh, why won't it move?" Goofy asked.

"I dunno," Donald replied. "It's heavy though."

"Maybe there's something behind it," Sora suggested. "If whatever is here is so important than it must be better protected than this."

"Better protected than being in a place that's only locatable if you know what the names are of the worlds that came form this one, searching them all with ridiculous animals and other dangers, finding the gate, and finding the one person who can open the gate?" Riku asked skeptically.

"Not only did we find this place on our own, but so did the bad guys," Mickey pointed out.

Kairi and Midori went to the door, both looking at it with interest.

"Hey, Midi, do you see—"

"Yeah, I do," Midori cut her off. The two looked at each other before looking back around at everyone else. "Hey guys?"

They were all talking, ignoring them and arguing about what to do.

Kairi sighed and turned around, grabbing onto the bevel in the door, Midori doing the same, and they pulled. Everyone else quieted down and looked around as they opened the door.

"Pull Sora," Kairi said to him with a smug smile. "Not push."

"We were just talking about how that was probably it," Donald said, shuffling around with embarrassment.

"Of course you all were," the redhead replied. Sora walked close to her, and she gave him an amused look.

Sora sighed and shook his head before turning his gaze away from her and up staircase that had been revealed. Like the hall, this staircase was still in tact, spiraling up around the side of the tower that they were heading up.

"Why can't places have elevators? Or escalators?" Donald whined. Everyone was thinking the same thing, but instead of answering, they all pushed on up the stairs. There was no door at the top. Instead, there was a decorated archway.

Sora walked in first and came to a sudden stop, his eyes widening as he looked around the room. It was a huge room, probably bigger than the gymnasium at his school. Unlike the white walls below, this room was coloured with murals all over the walls, floor and ceiling with paintings, books, statues and boxes everywhere. It looked like whoever had been there last had tried to shove every inch of culture into the room.

What caught his attention though, was in the center of the room. The ceiling had an oculus at the very center of it, and through there, light streamed through, surrounding a floating glass heart.

"Wow, it's real," Midori said, awe in her voice as they walked closer to it.

"It's—smaller than I expected," Riku admitted.

_'That's what she said!' _Roxas cried out happily from Sora's mind, followed by an 'ow' as Naminé presumably smacked him in the head. He had forgotten that she was still there.

It was true, the floating glass heart was only about the size of Mickey, if not smaller. It didn't look very impressive, just like it was made with normal glass and decided to defy gravity just for fun.

"Why do you think it's shaped like a heart?" Kairi wondered.

"To mirror Kingdom Hearts?" Mickey suggested. "I'm willing to bet that if the clouds would part it would be right above us."

"It can appear in any world that was once part of Twilight's Destiny," Sora remembered. "So I guess that's possible."

"So what do we do?" Donald asked. "Destroy it?"

"And unleash that much power?" Riku said skeptically.

"Remember what happened with the fake Kingdom Hearts the Organization made?" Goofy asked.

"Yeah, that had a lot of power behind it, but it was fake, so imagine what the real thing could do?"

"Who can control it?" Kairi asked. "Finding them and hoping that he or she is on our side is all that we can do."

"How do you propose we get out of here to find them?" Midori asked. "Think about it. Those two down there are fighting, one with Heartless, one with Nobodies. I imagine those were called in already. Even if we did get out of here, then what? We start flying around the universe trying to find one person that we know nothing about?"

"Well," Mickey said slowly, "we could look in worlds that were once a part of Twilight's Destiny. It narrows the search down quite a bit because only Destiny Islands and Twilight Town are populated." There was something stirring in Mickey's memories, something that seemed familiar, but he couldn't pick exactly what it was out. He felt like he should have all of these answers, but he didn't and it was frustrated.

"What if it's one of you three?" Goofy said suddenly. "All three of you are from there. "

"That would be a coincidence," Donald grumbled.

"There is no coincidence in fate," Mickey said suddenly, sounding a little more excited than he should have. The image of a blue-haired woman flashed through his mind, saying those exact words to him. "It has to be one of you three."

"Not Kairi," Riku said, already knowing the answer himself. "She was born in Radiant Garden. She's the Princess, remember?"

Kairi knew the answer too the second they started talking. She grabbed the front of Sora's shirt, forcing him to look at her. "You Sora. It's referring to you."

"Why Sora?" Midori asked. "Why not Riku."

"He knew his way through this castle without having been here before. He's the one destined to open the door to light, which DiZ said was nearly impossible so he'd have to have some sort of special power to do it. And then there's Roxas," Riku explained. "When Nobodies appear, they tend to appear where their original fell. Sora was in Hallow Bastion though and Roxas appeared in Twilight Town. Sora must have a connection to there then. Sora calls Destiny Islands home and Roxas calls Twilight Town home."

"It's true," Mickey said, a distant memory suddenly coming back. Of course, it had only been said in passing, but it had been said. He had been told the truth a long time ago. "I never—I can't believe I forgot. Then again, someone mutters something over ten years ago and it's not surprising I forgot. Someone once told me that he had to protect you. He had to protect the child, you Sora, who had the power of the heart moon. Kingdom Hearts."

Sora looked at the ground and said, "I don't understand. I thought—I know that everything adds up to me but isn't he...?" Sora trailed off, leaving the question hanging in the air. Kairi squeezed his hand, knowing that what he wanted to ask was how could it be him when it could be Riku. Sora was a confident boy when it came to most things, but there were times he would shy back to the background when Riku was involved. Even after all that time, he still assumed that Riku was better than him.

"Isn't who what?"

Sora hesitated and Riku said, "We need to get over to that thing now to see if we're right about Sora. You can discuss all your insecurities later." Of course Riku knew what he was referring to, they weren't practically brothers just for nothing.

They were about to head towards the crystal heart when there was an explosion from behind them. They all threw themselves to the floor to avoid any debris.

"There it is," Lilanti's voice suddenly called out. "The heart! What do we do now Crysita?"

"Get to it," they heard her say with a grunt.

"No, the power is mine!" Maleficent said with a cackle, and appeared in a flash of green fire in front of the heart.

They all stayed low, watching as Carverin leapt over them and pointed his weapon at Maleficent and said, "No, it's ours." That was when the Nobodies began appearing.

"You know nothing about this power," the witch said back, Heartless rising out of the ground.

"Winner takes all then," Crysita growled, and the two groups of creature started attacking each other.

"Why are they ignoring us?" Donald asked in a rather dry voice.

"Because they see each other as the bigger threat," Midori answered angrily. "Trust me, Crysita's like the cocky—don't give me that look Silver—oh fine—cockier version of me. Happy?"

"Very," Riku replied with a nod.

"How do we get through that?" Kairi asked, staring at the feuding Heartless and Nobodies. She knew that if they strayed into the fray, both groups would attack them.

Way to Dawn, Twilight and the Reverse Keyblades all appeared in their respective owner's hands. The Save the Queen staff appeared in Donald's hand and the Save the King shield appeared in Goofy's. They all smirked at each other.

"We clear the way while you and Sora get over there as fast as possible," Riku said. "Kairi, stay with him in case something happens."

She felt a wave of anger pass through her at the thought of something happening to Sora. They had all been through way too much to let anything happen. She gripped Sora's hand painfully tight with her left hand and held her right hand forward as Sora summoned the Ultima Keyblade.

Back in Radiant Garden, though Kairi didn't know it, in a hidden room deep beneath Ansem's computer room, was a hidden secret. In that room there laid a complete suit of armour, abandoned for over a decade. Along with it was a Keyblade. It was rather simple looking compared to something like the Ultima Blade, but at the same time, it was beautiful. Made from silvers and blues with a simply crown shape making up the key's teeth, it laid for over a decade without even the smallest sign of light. Suddenly though, a soft, pale pink glow appeared around the Keyblade, and it vanished.

Back in the ruins of Twilight's Destiny, there was a flash of pink light. When it faded, the Stormfall Keyblade was in her hand.

**VVVVVVVVVVV**

Maleficent raised her staff and a circle of green fire appeared around Carverin. A loud yell escaped his lips as the fire rendered his power useless. It didn't matter that ice turned into water when melted (which, in reality, should have put out the fire) as these were magical flames. He turned back and saw Crysita staring at him blankly. He tried calling out to her to help him, but she just continued to stare. That's when he knew for sure.

He had always suspected that she was doing things that went beyond anyone else, playing each of them in different ways. She manipulated them all, probably planning on getting rid of all of them in the end. Jorix had become a loose cannon in his obsession with the Princess of Heart, and she had just stood back and let the Keyblade Master tear him apart. Sarlio had been loosing it more than anything in the end, and though he knew for a fact that she had originally had bigger things in mind for Sarlio, she hadn't even blinked when he was killed. She had known about their unstable minds, but she still sent them off on missions. She had known that they wouldn't come back.

As he fell to the ground he couldn't believe how stupid all of them had been. And as his life left him he hoped that the Keyblade Master put an end to that wicked woman once and for all. He would be waiting for her in the depths of hell.

Riku slashed at the Heartless and Nobodies that jumped at them as the entered the fight. He moved quickly, forcing himself to ignore the exhaustion that was slowly overtaking him. A loud clang from behind him caused him to spin around, only to see Midori fighting off a large Nobody that had snuck up behind him.

She grunted, sore from where a piece of debris had hit her should earlier. Honestly, Midori was actually nervous having Crysita in the same room as her, knowing that they were at the endgame. She also knew that Crysita was much stronger than she was, especially because she was on her little child-energy induced power-high.

Midori heard Kairi scream slightly and fought on harder. She might not be stronger than Crysita, but she had no doubt that, if they were right, and the power was Sora's to use, that he would end her miserable existence once and for all.

Donald ran between the legs of a tall Heartless before waving around his staff and striking several creatures at once with his powerful lightning magic. He snickered as the creatures vanished and kept fighting.

Goofy smashed through a group of Heartless with his shield. As much as he didn't like violence he knew there was a reason to fight and he would do the best he could. He spun around and ended up slamming into Lilanti, who stumbled and fell into a group of Shadows.

King Mickey flipped over a group of Nobodies and ended up face to face with several huge Neoshadows. They attempted to attack him, but Mickey's small form proved to be too fast for the Half-Heart. With a huge slash of the Reverse Keyblade, they all vanished and he continued on.

Kairi kept her grip on Sora's hand tight. She would be damned if one of these creatures would tear them apart. They slashed their way through the waves of creatures in record-breaking time. This new Keyblade she had was much more powerful than her Oathkeeper one.

They reached the center of the room and ran into Crysita and Maleficent, who were fighting one another over a power that belonged to neither. Maleficent's cold yet knowing stare fell upon the two of them as she managed to knock Crysita out of the way. The witch took a step towards them and said, "Princess, it's been so long."

"You keep away from her," Sora hissed as he pointed Ultima at Maleficent. "I swear, if you touch her I won't hesitate to beat you into a non-existent pulp."

"My, my, such anger for one who was quite the pathetic Heartless, or so I heard. Perhaps it comes from your Nobody? I heard he was no good."

"One Roxas is worth a thousand of you," Sora snapped, "and don't you forget it witch."

"Get away from him!" Kairi screamed suddenly as she slammed her Keyblade to stop a crystallized staff from hitting Sora. She glared at Crysita as she forced the wicked woman to take a step backwards.

This distracted Sora long enough for Maleficent to wave her staff and shoot flames at him. He saw them coming out of the corner of his eye and dodged out of the way, not wanting to get burned. He ended up landing beside floating heart, but paid no mind to it. All that mattered now as getting Kairi away from Maleficent and Crysita.

But Crysita wasn't fighting her anymore.

The purple-haired woman was staring at the heart with a look of shock. Sora ignored her look and rushed back towards the fight. What he didn't notice was that the second he had come close to the glass heart, a glow had appeared in the center of it. As he moved father away from it, the glow started to fade.

"Just as I thought," Maleficent muttered.

Crysita twisted around and waved an arm. What happened next no one expected. Several of the smaller Nobodies seemed to warp together into a large creature that slammed into Maleficent, hiding her from view. In a quick moving Crysita turned around and grasped tightly onto Kairi slamming her staff onto the Princess's hand. A loud crack was heard as her Keyblade fell to the ground and Kairi screamed in pain.

"Kairi!" Sora yelled but stopped running as Crysita grabbed the girl tightly. Her staff shifted and instead a knife was in the Half-Heart's hands, at Kairi's neck.

"Move and she dies."

Kairi wasn't having any of that though. Her wrist on her dominant hand was broken, she could feel that, but she wasn't going to be a pawn to force Sora into doing something that he didn't want to. In a quick movement, she grabbed the girl's hand that was holding the knife and slammed her other elbow into her gut.

The movement caused her to nick Kairi's neck, but it wasn't anything to be worried about. Kairi turned around, summoning Stormfall to her hand again and she yelled, "Faith!" The light caused Crysita to scream and fly backwards, slamming into the floor.

"Kairi!" Sora called out to her.

"I'm okay!" she yelled. She couldn't fight with her left hand, but using magic wasn't a problem for her.

"Fine," Crysita said with a grunt as she pushed herself off of the floor. "I'm done dealing with you, you little whore."

"Don't you dare call her a whore!" Sora snarled and was about to charge forward, but a massive Berserker appeared in front of him. He just barely got out of the way before it smashed its weapon into the ground.

"I call 'em like I see 'em," Crysita said confidently as she lunged at Kairi.

"Protect!" the redhead yelled and a barrier appeared around her. "Firaga!" While the fire stunned her enemy, Kairi leapt into the air and slammed her foot into the girl's face. She heard a yell of pain, and she was positive she heard some sort of bone or cartilage breaking.

Crysita slammed her staff into the ground, and Kairi let out a scream as she was thrown back as a wall of crystals jutted out of the ground. They traveled around the room, exploding from the ground and creating a maze. Crysita just smirked and walked through the crystals as if they were air.

Kairi was stunned for only a minute before she started running, ignoring the pain in her arm.

Sora defeated the creatures around him just in time to block the crystal staff that descended upon him. He grunted from the force of the hit but managed to push her back. They stood facing each other, both tense with their weapons ready. He could easily tell she had a broken nose, and a flash of pride went through him. He had no doubt that Kairi had done it.

"I am getting so sick of you," Crysita snarled at him. "All of you, but especially you. Why haven't you broken down yet? I've made your life miserable! I've been sending you nightmares! I've been destroying everything you care about! I've tortured you!"

"I'm stronger than you think," Sora snapped. "I fight with something that you can never understand, let alone hope to use. My friends are my power."

Their weapons met and they struggled against each other for a moment before she jumped back. Crysita wasn't stupid, she knew that if it came to a physical struggle of strength and he would win. She was more agile though, so she would have to use that to her advantage.

"Friends? What kind of power is that? They're weak! You all are!"

"No, you're the weak one!" He threw his Keyblade at her, and she just barely jumped out of the way in time. It flew back into his hand and he threw it at her again and again, just missing her by inches.

She spun her staff around, sick of the little game they were playing. The entire floor under both of them turned into crystals, and before Sora could do anything, the ground underneath him shifted and he fell backwards. Mid-fall, crystals shot up and surrounded his arms, stopping him from falling. He looked around and realized why. It wasn't to save him though. He was suspended above several sharply pointed crystals, all poking up.

"The way they're positioned," Crysita said. "You won't die if you fall. You'll never be able to move anything but your head again though. Then you'll have to watch while I kill every one of your friends one by one. Unlock the power."

"I don't even know how!" he yelled at her. She growled angrily and slammed her hand into his arm, the small sliver of crystal that was clasped in her hands imbedding in his shoulder.

"Do it," she snarled, and when he once again refused she stabbed him again.

Sora groaned in pain but glared up at her. Suddenly, something behind her caught his eye. He made no motion of acknowledgement as he saw Roxas and Naminé appear behind Crysita. Roxas flicked a piece of Crysita's hair, and it reacted to his ghostly touch. He grinned at Sora and nodded his head.

"Go burn in hell," Sora said to Crysita.

She let out a frustrated sound and was about to stab him again when the ghostly version of Oblivion hit her stomach. It wasn't real the one, so it didn't kill her, but it was enough to send her flying and to wind her. The second she hit the floor, the restraints holding Sora vanished and he fell. He didn't land on the spikes though, because Naminé pulled him to the side and they both tumbled onto the floor.

A loud bang echoed through the room as the crystal maze was shattered by green flames. Sora heard Kairi scream, and looked over. He could see her pushing herself up and brushing the debris from her hair, stunned at what had happened. The blast caused Roxas to fly backwards, landing beside Sora and Naminé in a rather ungraceful way.

Crysita saw the glare in Maleficent's eyes and dodged out of the way from her meteor attack. That was when she found herself beside Sora again.

His ears rang as he heard Kairi scream. He was vaguely aware that Crysita's staff had sharpened to a point, and it was descending quickly onto him.

Midori happened to look around at that exact moment and let out a scream, causing everyone to turn around. Riku felt his mouth go dry and his heart stop as he saw both Sora and Kairi slump to the ground.

"Oh my god," Mickey gasped as he watched on.

Goofy, who had been the nearest to Sora and Kairi, let out a yell of horror for his friends. One that was mimicked by Donald seconds later.

Kairi had thrown herself into the way of the staff that had been heading for Sora, but she hadn't stopped it from hitting him too. Crysita had used enough power and force thanks to her extra energy to not only pierce through Kairi's heart, but the angle allowed her to pierce through Sora's as well.

Neither of them moved as Crysita grabbed the end of the staff and yanked it out of them. She then held it up, ignoring the blood that streamed down it and onto her hand. She stared at them with interest and said, "Well, that's one way to get rid of two problems at once."

Naminé and Roxas appeared on either side of them, neither knowing what to do or say. Neither of them even knew how they could still be there when their Others weren't. Naminé had ghostly tears streaking down her cheeks but if Namine's tears didn't answer Riku's question about if a Nobody that returned to their Other could feel or not, Roxas' expression certainly did.

He looked positively livid.

"You bitch," Roxas swore as he stood up, shaking. "You're going to die slowly and painfully, I swear it. That's what you deserve for killing my brother and for killing Kairi."

As the last words escaped the Nobody's lips Kingdom Hearts started glowing. The eerie blue glow forced all of them to look up in awe. Still, everyone that was left in the room: all the Nobodies, Heartless, Maleficent, Crysita, a very injured Lilanti, Riku, Donald, Goofy, King Mickey, Midori, Roxas, and Naminé, made some sort of surprised sound as a bright light shot down from the moon and slammed into it's gemstone twin, illuminated the room.

When the light died down everyone looked up and gaped in shock at what they saw.

Roxas, Naminé, Kairi and Sora were all gone.

**Author's Note**

For anyone who doesn't know, Stormfall is the final Keyblade you get in Aqua's story. I guess in a way it's supposed to by symbolic of Kairi becoming stronger. Stormfall coming to her also represents her connection to Aqua. Plus I like that Keyblade. I'm getting a bit bored of leaving Kairi with Oathkeeper.

Wanna know what's funny? Destiny's Embrace is the most girly Keyblade of life, but I actually really liked using it. I found that it worked the best out of all of the Keyblades for a while until I got one that was a lot stronger than it. I guess it'd kind alike saying a girl that looks like a complete girly-girl can't pack a punch. Don't test this theory.

Also as of now there's like what…9 days and 10 minutes until Harry Potter comes out? My brain just might try dividing by zero before that from excitement.

Also I need to write a screenplay for class. I destroyed the short story part of my class, but for the life of me I can't get an idea for a screenplay. I'm pretty sure there's a troll in my head going 'LOL WRITERS BLOCK! U MAD?' …yes Troll, I am mad.

For anyone who read the original…yeah there were some major changes. Major ones.

Thank you to all my awesome reviewers! Can always count on you guys for a smile! Shadowwolf547, Shifuni, Shire Folk, NRZWolf 13 and BlackWhiteZangetsu! You guys are awesome.

_**Krystal Lily Potter **_


	45. Listen To The Rain

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Forty-Four – Listen to the Rain_

He was floating, surrounded by white light. He remembered the pain of getting stabbed in the heart (a pain he had felt before, but at his own hands), he remembered seeing the surprised look on her face as she hovered above him, trying to protect him. He remembered trying to say something but he was just so weak and the pain was so intense. She looked like she tried to say something too, she had made an odd noise and he knew she was trying to tell him something but she didn't have the strength. He remembered how her eyes went black a split second before his own did. He remembered suddenly feeling alone, surprised that he could feel at all. He remembered that he was dead.

"Sora," a soothing voice whispered.

He squeezed his eyes shut, not wanting to be comforted. Kairi, she had tried to save him. He had saved her so many times before and she had tried to return the favor by throwing herself between him and Crysita. She hadn't expected the violet-haired girl to be powerful enough to force the weapon through both of them, the angle perfect to pierce through both of their physical hearts like they were some sort of twisted, human shish kabob. It was his fault though. He was the Keyblade Master, he should have been faster to move out of the way so that Kairi would have had to get in the way. He wanted to be faster. He didn't want to be the most physically powerful, he didn't want to be the best at magic. He wanted to have speed on his side so that something like that could never happen again.

Then again, he was dead, so it never would happen again.

"Sora, honey, you have to open your eyes," the voice whispered again.

He refused to listen though. He didn't deserve to be acknowledged by anyone. He had let the one person he cared about more than anything die. It was his fault. He deserved just to float in nothingness for the rest of his existence, since he knew he existed even though he had died. He already knew that he wasn't in a heaven or a hell. There was no peace wherever he was, there was no pain, no fire, no angels…there was nothing. Just him.

"Sora please. For me?"

He slowly realized that the voice was extremely familiar. It wasn't Kairi, nor was it Namine or Midori or any other female that he had run into lately, but the voice was so familiar. He knew it, but he hadn't heard it in such a long time that he couldn't place it right away. His curiosity got the better of him, always more overpowering than his stubbornness, and his eyes slowly opened. He blinked with surprise (How could he blink again? He was dead after all) as he found himself staring into a pair of bright cerulean eyes identical to his own.

"Mom?" he rasped with surprise as the voice snapped into place in his mind again. He took in her long, dark blond hair that had slowly been tinting silver (something she blamed him for), he took in her lightly tanned skin that was adorned with both a few laugh lines and stress lines, and he couldn't help but notice that the small smile on her face was the combination of a sad and happy smile.

He slowly uncurled himself from the ball that he had been in unknowingly, his legs up against his chest with his arms wrapped around them and his face pressed against them. She was kneeling in front of him, and once he shifted into a more comfortable position, she moved closer and hugged him to her tightly.

Just as slowly as heh ad moved, his mind came to a conclusion: his mother was dead. He knew for a fact that he was dead and she was there so she had to be dead too. She died protecting him, giving him the chance to run and live.

Tears welded up in his eyes and he pressed his face against her shoulder. His mother was dead. The mother he had been nothing but trouble for just before she died. He couldn't remember the last time that he had told her he loved her. She told him every night, he had told her once when he came home. What kind of person was he?

Ayame hugged her teenage son closer. She knew that he knew now. She felt terrible. She and Sora were all each other had. As far as Sora knew, he had been an only child, but she knew the truth. It saddened her to know that, for the moment, he was alone.

"M—mom," he choked out. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I—"

"It's okay Sora, I know," she whispered while rubbing his back. "I know everything seems bad right now, but it's not too late for you."

He slowly looked up at her and frowned while saying, "How? I'm dead. K—Kairi's dead. I let her down."

She shook her head. "No, not yet."

"But, we were both stabbed through the heart," he replied, confusion obvious on his tearstained face.

"But you're not dead yet. You think that Destiny would let it's Keyblae Master just die at the beginning of the rise of darkness?" she asked him.

"The—the rise? You mean, it's not over? These people are just—"

"Just the piece of the iceberg that can be seen above the water," Ayame explained with a nod. "Worse things are coming Sora."

He gave her an almost helpless look before asking, "What can I do?"

"Be strong," a deep voice answered.

Sora looked up from his mother and saw a man with brown hair that was even more wildly spiky than his own with the pair of navy eyes. He was tall and had a wide smile on his face. There was something a little familiar about him, but Sora couldn't quite place it. The teenager tilted his head slightly before asking, "Who are you?"

The man's smile slowly vanished before saying, "No, you wouldn't know me. Perhaps you have heard of me though."

"Of course he has," Ayame said quickly, a stern tone to her voice. "You think I would do something such as never mention his father to him?"

Sora blinked with surprise. Now that he looked at the man carefully, he could see where some of his features had come from. Many people said that he had a lot of his mother's features, almost like a male version of her, but he could definitely see that he had a resemblance to this man as well. He didn't say anything though. He didn't call out 'dad' or jump up for a family reunion or anything like that. Instead he just stared.

Anyone might have thought that he'd jump up and hug the man that was his father, but the reality of it was, he didn't know him. Sora might have met this man was he was very young, only a few months old, but he was still a stranger. There weren't even any pictures of him in their home. Sora felt almost like a lost little child who shuffled closer to his mother.

His father, Raiden, seemed to realize that he wasn't going to get some sort of happy response from the son that he had never known, but he let it slide. "Sora, you are not dead yet. You're needed for the upcoming battle, and your connections with your friends are so strange that—"

"I don't care," Sora interrupted quickly. "I—I don't. It doesn't mate if fate or destiny or whatever has will me to live. It's not work it if Kairi can't live too. If fate wants someone to live, let it be her. Not me. Please, just let Kairi live." He felt the tears pooling in his eyes again.

Ayame smiled at her son and said, "All a mother wants to know is that she raised her boy to be a good man, and though you still have some growing to do, and I wish I hadn't left you so early, I know that you are already the person I had prayed that you would be. The fact that, even if you only had one 'be reciced from the dead for free' card with you, and you would still give it to Kairi shows that. That is definitely more than just a childhood crush or a teenage fling. That's something that many people don't find at all in their lives. However, as secure as your heart is in that respect, it's still lost in others. Tell me, did you figure out anything else yet?"

Sora reached into his pocket slowly and pulled out the object Roxas had found in the nursery. The pendant with an old crown on it identical to his own except with Roxas' name etched on the back. He held it up, comparing it to his own and he said, "Roxas is my brother, isn't he?"

"It is a custom in your mother's family," his father said suddenly, "when twins are born, to name the eldest one, and then, if they are a different gender, to create a suitable anagram of that name. For instance, if you had a twin sister her name could have been Rosa. However, if the twins are the same gender, the second child' name is an anagram with an X placed in it somewhere. We actually weren't going to go with that idea for you and Roxas, but your mother heard the name and was stubborn."

"The Organization stole the idea from our history," Ayame added bitterly, as if sensing Sora's oncoming question.

"Roxas is my twin?" Sora asked slowly. He just wanted to make sure he had everything traight.

"Yes," she replied with a nod. "But it's more than that. You and Roxas aren't normal. You're both very special boys. You see, only the royal family of Twilight's Destiny has the ability to use the power of Kingdom Hearts. It's supposed to be given to the new ruler during their coronation ceremony, so I never received it since my father was still alive." She saw the confusion on Sora's face and decided to lay it all out for him plainly. "You and Roxas are twin Princes of Twilight's Destiny."

"I was killed in the battle that tore apart our world," Sora's father said, filling in Sora's stunned silence. "In the process, Roxas was killed. He was only a few months old. The same way you and Kairi fell."

"You were injured badly as well," Sora's mother added. Sora had a flashback of her running through the halls with the baby version of himself, the blanket covered in blood. "You were dying. Somehow, as if sensing that you needed him, Roxas' soul went inside of you and healed you enough so that you would live. He became dormant inside of you until you were split apart."

"Wait, then if Roxas isn't actually my Nobody, who is?" he demanded. He regretting sounding so harsh, but he was desperate for some answers. Plus, he could see the pain in his mother's eyes as she spoke of her youngest son dying, and he didn't like it.

His parents exchanged glances before his father said, "You don't have one Sora, and because of what happened to Roxas, he won't either. You're special. When you were born—" He suddenly looked down.

"You were stillborn," his mother picked up. "And then—then something happened and you came back to us. We know that, after death, that the reason you were stillborn was because of the overwhelming amount of light within you. Your heart connected itself to your brothers, father, me, and your grandparents moments after you were born. It's those connections that brought you back and made you strong. You have darkness, but so very little. You don't have the ability to become a Nobody. That's how Kairi was able to bring you back from being a Heartless without Roxas. It shouldn't have been able to happen otherwise."

Sora slowly nodded and said, "So, the power reacts to me because I'm a...Prince (he said the word 'prince' as if tasting some odd concoction that he had never heard of before) of Twilight's Destiny. On top of that, Roxas doesn't have his own body right now, so it'll only work with me?"

"Yes. You can give your brother his life, his body back, and you can give Naminé hers, but first you must take the power as your own. That's how you're going to get back."

"Kairi?" Sora asked, his pleading tone simple enough to understand.

"The same thing happened with Kairi and Naminé as well," Raiden said, ignoring Sora's question. "That's why you can bring Naminé back. They were cousins of the same age. You and Roxas were identical when you were born, but Kairi and Naminé looked a little different and Naminé's soul, while dormant inside of Kairi, took on more of her features."

"Like what?"

Four more people appeared in front of him, still as if only holograms. One couple consisted of a tall regal looking man with black hair and silver tinted eyes, and a short woman with fair skin, dark red hair and deep indigo eyes. The other couple was a short man with bright blond hair and dark brown eyes while the woman was identical to the first.

Then, like unmoving holograms, two small girls appeared in front of them. They looked quite a bit a like, mostly because both looked like their mothers (whom he rightly assumed were identical twins, though one was a little taller than the other).

He understood though. The second girl, a blonde with bright brown eyes who seemed a little more diminutive than the redhead, was Naminé before she had died at a young age and her soul combined with Kairi's, causing her to look even more like her later on..

He looked at their parents and asked, "What were there names?" He knew for a fact that Kairi didn't know this, so if he could find out for her…

"Hikaru and Manami Kokoro," his mother said while motioning to Kairi's parents. "They were the King and Queen of Radiant Garden."

"But I thought that Ansem the Wise was," Sora said, confusion passing over his features.

His mother shook her head. "He was their most trusted advisor and helped them a lot. You see, Kairi's mother, like me, was the one born into royalty, not her father. In Radiant Garden though, no matter what, the male is always the more dominant one. That still made her sister a Princess though, making Naminé one as well. Her parents are Kioshi and Yuri Kikou."

"Mom, if I'm not dead, why am I here?" he wondered.

"It is your destiny to wield the powers of Kingdom Hearts, Sora," Ayame said to him. "Be warned though, power can corrupt. I trust you to do what's best though and not to take advantage of it."

"How do I find Kairi? I need to save her first," Sora asked, almost desperately. "She died for me, I can't leave her here."

"You must believe in your self and your friends," his father said. "You'll find the way back to them, and then you'll find the strength to go home."

"My friends?" Sora asked in a whisper, more to himself than to everyone else.

"Listen to the rain Sora," Ayame said suddenly.

Sora didn't understand but closed his eyes anyway and strained to hear.

He heard it.

His eyes flew open as he felt cold droplets of water starting to strike his features. He looked around him and listened as the rain beat down on invisible objects around him.

"Do you hear it?"

"Yes."

"Listen to what's beyond it."

"Sora…"

He looked around and saw Goofy standing away from him, looking sadly at the floor. "Sora, if you can hear me, we need you to come back again, ok? I won't forget ya, so I won't let ya fade away, ok?"

"Sora, you big palooka." He turned again and there was Donald. "Don't give up yet, you're too stubborn to die on us! Besides, I bet there will be a tournament at Olympus Coliseum that you'll want to participate in after this, so you need to come back."

"I'm sorry Sora," Mickey's voice rang through him as the mouse came into view. "I'm sorry for not telling you what I know, and I'm sorry that I'm going to continue hiding something from you for a little while longer. You must have felt like I was using you, but I'm not. I promised an old friend to look out for you, and I intend to keep that promise. I know you're strong enough to beat this."

"Sora you idiot," Midori said. "You had better wake up." When he turned to her he couldn't help but gasp. He was looking at the real Midori, not the half he had become accustom to. "If I have to deal with an emotional Riku for the rest of my life, I will find a way to haul your sorry soul back here and torture it. In all seriousness Sora, we need you. Please come back?"

"Come on buddy," Riku managed to choke out. "We're nothing without you, and you know how hard it is for me to admit something like that. Come back, please. We need you. Don't give up fighting on us yet, because you're the only one that keeps us all going."

Sora closed his eyes as Riku's voice faded away, just feeling the rain on his skin.

"Sora…"

Once again he opened his eyes and this time he found Roxas and a black haired girl in front of him holding out their hands to him. Both of their images were blurry and flickering, so he couldn't see all of their features. This reminded him of when Roxas and Namine had held out their hands to him when he was trapped in his mind after bashing in his head on Destiny Islands.

He reached forward and took their hands. Their images started to blur before vanishing into an array of light and sparks. The light swirled around Sora's hands before vanishing. He gaped in surprise at what was there. Two Keyblades that looked similar to the Ultima blade in their complicated design, yet different. One was white with silver and blue metal on it, the other black with red and gold.

"What?"

"These are two of the most powerful Keyblades ever created," Sora's mother explained. "There are a few others, one in particular that is much more powerful, but it's dangerous. It could bring about the end of all the worlds. Should you come across it, you will know it, but don't look for it. It will only bring pain and suffering if you do. These two, however, were made specifically for you. Savior and Sacrifice. It's your destiny to wield them."

"Sora!"

He looked up again and there, standing only a few feet away from him, was Kairi. The Keyblades vanished as he rushed forward and wrapped his arms around her, but she didn't disappear. He could feel her as much as he could the rain. She was real.

"I'm sorry," he choked out. "I'm so sorry."

"It's okay," she whispered, hugging him back. "You always say that you would do anything for me, but I've never made it clear on my part. I would do anything to keep you safe. Even if it means being tortured and raped a billion times over. For you, I would do it."

"I would never let that happen."

"I know you won't. You have to realize that I won't anything happen to you either. Not without fighting with every last bit of strength I have." She took a step and looked up at him with determined but tear filled eyes. "You mean everything to me. I would go through the worst time of my life again and again to keep you safe and happy. I'm not going to be weak anymore. You've been giving so much, and all I've been doing is taking without thought." She reached forward and grasped his hand. "We're in this together, all of us."

Sora couldn't stop the tears from leaking from his eyes. He tried to wipe them away and chuckled and hugged her tightly, never wanting to let go. "My god I love you so much."

"I love you too," she whispered. She looked over and stared at the fading forms of their family members with a frown. Sora followed her gaze, staring but not saying anything.

"Hurry," his mother said. "For you don't have much time. Open your eyes to the love around you. You may feel you're alone, but I'm here still with you. You can do what you dream, just remember to listen to the rain."

He nodded and smiled warmly at Kairi as he turned to her again. Suddenly Roxas and Naminé appeared on either side of them, but unlike before, they looked…real.

Sora's new Keyblades appeared in his hands and started to glow brightly. The power from them struck both Roxas and Naminé.

Sora and Kairi watched as their Nobodies started glowing and, as if falling with the rain, two hearts floated down to them. One went into each of their 'Nobodies'. They glowed for a moment longer before appearing again.

Naminé gasped as a Keyblade appeared in her hand. It was the one she used whenever she and Kairi switched.

"Chain of Memories," Sora whispered. "It was made for you Naminé."

She nodded, staring at it in awe. Sora turned to his Nobody ("Brother," he whispered) as his Keyblades appeared. One was an arched, silver Keyblade with his X pendant hanging from the end, the other mirroring it except it was coloured in exactly the opposite way and the Keychain on the end was an odd shape that he was pretty sure was supposed to be a sea-salt ice cream.

"Two Become One," Sora said, looking at the silver one. "Memory of Two."

Roxas looked down and then looked back up, nodding before saying, "Lets go back and send them back to the darkness they came from."

"Together?" Kairi asked.

"Together," the other three echoed and all four put their hands together.

The glass heart that held the power of Twilight's Destiny appeared in front of them. They all stared at it but no one moved until Roxas pushed Sora forward.

"But—"

"Go," Roxas ordered his brother. "Take it."

Sora hesitantly reached forward and placed his hands on it. There was an explosion of light and the rain stopped falling. When it cleared Sora stood there, looking the same except for his clothes.

Instead of his normal clothes, he had on a typical (for him) black short-sleeved hoodie with white outlines and a bit of golden yellow in his hood. His shirt underneath, likewise, was black with outlines of white and some dark navy. Crisscrossing over his jacket were dark red straps, held together by his crown pendant, which now had no chain. His shorts weren't nearly as large as before, the same combination of black, white and blue as before. His shoes were mostly burgundy now and he had back his old gloves that had been ruined by Maleficent. Under his shirts the bottom of silver and blue armour could be seen, and he had a piece of armour on his left arm.

"That's one hell of a drive form," Roxas joked.

"I'm not exactly sure it's one," Sora admitted.

Kairi traced her finger along the red straps running across his shoulders and around his ribcage. She grinned up at him and said, "You're officially my knight in shining armour."

"Actually," he replied sheepishly, "apparently I'm a Prince."

She looked around at Naminé, a surprised expression on her face before she smirked and said, "The darker clothes, the less puffy pants and strange belts to work through, the armour, you being a prince...that's ridiculously hot babe."

Roxas snorted with amusement and Sora looked embarrassed. He cleared his throat and said, "Discuss later. Go back now."

"Together," Naminé said with a nod. Again, bright light exploded around them, but this time originating from their hands.

"Listen to the rain," Sora whispered.

"Please don't let go," Kairi whispered to him. "Never again."

"I won't."

"Good, because it's just too hard to say goodbye."

And with that they faded into the light.

**Author's Note**

Yes, the long, useless description of Sora's clothes was a rather vague version of the ones on my deviant art account. One person actually asked permission to make my Xion design into a cosplay costume. Obviously I said yes and pics or it didn't happen. I don't think I've ever been more flattered!

Hmmm...I should make a preview for Shadows of Reality Final Mix? It'll go like this.

Introductory helicopter nature shot. Bad guy at a safe distance. Second introductory helicopter nature shot. Bad guy at an uncomfortably close distance. Be careful Harry, he doesn't have a nose!

Harry needs some sleep. And he needs a nose. And he needs some sleep, and new glasses. And he needs a manicure.

Don't sleep yet Harry. He's gonna kill you. Look out!

I swear I don't have the entire Harry Potter Literal trailer memorized...maybe a bit...ok maybe more than that. Still, it's awesome, go check it out on youtube. SERIOUSLY THOUGH THIS MOVIE IS HAPPENING TOMORROW AT MIDNIGHT! My mind can't even comprehend! My friends and I have watched all of the movies (one a day…we still have to watch Half-Blood Prince tonight) and my mind is all 'sdfngfodnogoifdgijonod'. There's no way I can describe it. So yes, between that and school work I've been super distracted.

Anyway, thank you to everyone who reviewed! Shadowwolf547, BlackWhiteZangetsu, Shire Folk, NRZWolf 13, Trainalf, Shifuni, Chairman LoneStar and Xorikma! You guys rock! You have no idea how much.

Wizard. Lightning. Battle.

Zoom. Big shiny P then other letters come out.

Okay I'm done, I swear it.

Da da da da da da da. Subscribe. Or review in this case.

I'd say fml but I'm pretty sure we just established that I don't have one.

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	46. Ultimate Showdown Of Ultimate Destiny

**Shadows of a Dream**

_Chapter Forty-Five – The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny_

Riku started at his hands as they shook. His whole body felt numb, as if he would never be able to feel any sort of warmth again. They were gone, his best friends were both gone. Not even the bodies were left, but the blood that had seeped onto the floor was still there, reminding him of the fact that they were both dead over and over again. It just couldn't be true. It couldn't. It was Sora and Kairi. They never died. It just wasn't possible.

Somewhere inside of him he had always thought that, out of everyone, they'd be the survivors no matter what happened. Though Mickey, Donald and Goofy held an almost childlike innocence to them at first glance, it was Sora and Kairi who seemed to have their whole happy little lives together in front of them. Out of everyone, he could see them being the soul survivors in some sort of twisted horror movie where it seemed like no one would live.

It just couldn't be possible.

No one moved; no one seemed to know what to do.

Midori looked down at the floor, and watched as a small droplet of water splashed onto the ground. Her gaze quickly turned upward as she stared at the night sky. The rim around the oculus in the ceiling had been beat at with magic during the fight, and now nearly the entire ceiling was gone. She watched as raindrops started falling around them.

Suddenly, the empty, glass heart seemed to explode with light again (much like the Cornerstone had), followed by a loud shattering sound as it broke into hundreds of pieces, scattering around the room, mixing with the broken marble, stone, and blood.

Riku was the first to look up after this happened and his eyes widened at what he saw. Standing before him were Sora and Kairi, both fully conscious and healthy looking, and neither appearing all to impressed as they gazed at Crysita.

For her part, she didn't show that she was all that shocked. She just said, "So, the Keyblade Master and his whore lives."

"And you die," Sora snapped before lunging towards her quickly, wasting no time. It might have been just Riku thinking it, but he seemed faster than before. Then again, between being turned into a twisted human shish kabob with his girlfriend, vanishing, and showing up again, his clothes were different.

Sora moved his arms quickly, causing Savior and Sacrifice to appear in his hands as he brought them down onto Crysita. She managed to get her crystal staff up in time to block him, but as she moved out of the way, her weapon shattered.

Maleficent made her way up behind Sora and was about to wave her own staff, but was thrown backwards. The witch looked around and found herself staring at the rather unhappy face of Roxas. He spun around and tried to hit her, but several Heartless appeared between them. He sliced through the Heartless that attempted to attack him with his twin Keyblades, but he was still forced away from his brother.

His cerulean eyes caught sight of a black substance on the floor where many Heartless and Nobodies stood. A huge grin appeared on his face as he rushed towards it, realizing that it must have been in one of the crates that had been knocked over.

Naminé blocked Lilanti with Chain of Memories, grunting a bit at the force the other girl used behind her weapon. Midori suddenly lunged out and slammed Twilight beside Naminé's Keyblade, and the force of both girls together caused Lilanti to stumble backwards into the wall of Heartless. She yelped in pain as the claws of some of the Heartless dug into her, but she fought them off.

"How is this possible?" Riku asked as he continued to fight.

Kairi was beside him, slicing at anything that came near her with Stormfall. She looked at him and said, "I have no idea. One minute I was standing alone in the light, and the next minute Sora was in front of me, and then Naminé and Roxas appeared."

Riku's emerald eyes glanced over at the two in question and asked, "I'd ask how you guys are alive but I don't want to jinx it. How did they get physical bodies?"

"They're real Riku," Kairi said. "Sora gave them back their hearts. They used to be real people."

Mickey slashed at a Nobody that snuck up behind her and said, "That explains a lot."

"What does it explain?" Riku asked him. Mickey just shook his head and continued on into the fray.

Roxas rushed around the room and rolled underneath a Heartless that jumped at him. He quickly stood up as he reached the edge of the room and touched the black powder that was on the floor. He smelled it and a grin appeared on his face.

"The people that built this room were great," Roxas muttered. "Axel buddy, this is in honor of you and everything you taught me about combustion." He raised both of his Keyblades and yelled, "Firaga!"

There was a huge crate that had been filled with gunpowder and a lot of it has spilled. Still, there was a trail leading to what he assumed (and hoped) was a stack of barrels filled with gunpowder. It was going to be one hell of a boom. None of the people that lived in the castle before would have thought that one of their beloved princes would set fire to the large amount of gunpowder that they left around.

Sora was forced backwards into the center of the room, where he bumped into both Donald and Goofy. A moment later Naminé and Midori were pushed into the same spot, and then Riku and Kairi and finally Mickey and Roxas joined the ground.

"You're surrounded," Crysita growled, breathing heavily. She glanced at and Lilanti, who was breathing heavily and badly injured. She knew that she wouldn't survive this fight, but that was alright with her. She had lost track of Maleficent though, who had taken a look in Roxas' direction and vanished.

Sora glared back at her and was about to lunge forward when Roxas' voice whispered in his mind, _'Can you hear me Sora?'_

'_Yes?'_ he said with confusion. The amount of time Roxas' soul spent in his body must have forged a permanent mental link between the twins.

'_Can you make a shield that protects all of us?'_

'_I probably can, why?'_

'_When I say 'now', do it as fast as possible.'_

Sora didn't question his brother and he didn't reply, but Roxas knew he got the message.

There was a pause as everyone stared at the Heartless and Nobodies, Crysita and Lilanti standing smugly in front of them. Riku spied Maleficent in the hall, a shield erected around her for protection. It was odd, because he had no idea what she needed to be protected from.

"NOW!" Roxas yelled suddenly.

"Protect!"

His Keyblades started to glow brightly as he yelled the spell. A grey shield appeared around the group as a huge, booming sound assaulted the room.

Everyone shielded his or her eyes and hears from the light of the explosion. A few screams of shock were heard, as well as a loud 'whoop' from Roxas.

When the smoke started to clear away everyone could see the damage done. The wall where the actually explosion had occurred was completely gone, as well as many of the Heartless and Nobodies. There were scraps of every possible substance around the room now, and a light smoke still covered the area, mixing with dust and ash. Lilanti was lying on the ground. She had been too injured and not fast enough to get out of the way in time. There was blood all around her, and she didn't move.

"Holy shit," was the first thing that came out of Midori's mouth.

"And that," Roxas said, "is what you learn when you're only friend in an Organization of psychos is a pyro."

"You are never going near the stove, ever," Sora replied as he lowered the shield. "E-ev-er."

"Impressive," Maleficent said as she appeared in front of them, "but not impressive enough."

More Heartless appeared, and Mickey, Donald and Goofy led the way in taking those out.

Sora, Roxas and Riku all ganged up on Maleficent, by forming a triangle around her.

Kairi, Naminé and Midori surrounded Crysita, who was still alive, but injured badly.

"This is over," Sora growled loudly.

Kairi lunged at Crysita, who dodged her, but Midori flew out at her and she had to dodge again. She didn't move out of the way of Naminé in time though.

A loud yell escaped the woman's mouth as Naminé struck her in the side, causing her to fall to the floor in a heap. Crysita gasped in pain, but managed to stand up again and attempt to strike the blond girl with a sharp piece of her broken staff, but Midori blocked the attack, forcing her backwards.

Riku, and Roxas swiped their Keyblades at Maleficent, who was fighting back with her staff expertly. Neither boy relented though.

Riku turned to see what Sora was doing because the brunet hadn't flung himself into battle like he normally would. Instead Sora stood a few feet away, glancing back and forth between the battles with Crysita and Maleficent.

Savior and Sacrifice started glowing again as Sora closed his eyes. The power that he could feel flowing through him was unbelievable. He wanted to rush into the battle with Riku and Roxas, but he couldn't. Every time he moved pain would shoot through him, but he assumed that it was his body adjusting to the powers that Kingdom Hearts had given him. He knew there had to be some drawbacks, but he really wished that they had happened later. He had expected something like crashing after having too many energy drinks.

Kairi swung Stormfall and it hit its target Her indigo eyes met Crysita's shocked brown ones as she said, "That was for hurting everyone else." She left her Keyblade there and suddenly punched Crysita in the face. "That's was for freezing all of our friends and destroying so many worlds." She punched her even harder, causing her to finally fall to the floor. "That's for Jorix raping me. He's not here so you'll have to do." She grabbed her Keyblade, pulling it out of Crysita's stomach and slamming it into her heart. "And that, bitch, is for what you did to Sora."

Crysita's eyes went blank, blood seeping across the floor as she started to vanish. Naminé suddenly shot forward and pushed Midori to the ground on top of the body. When she hit the body, she let out a sudden gasp of pain. Midori felt as if her world was spinning around faster than a tornado. She groaned in pain and blacked out, falling to the ground.

Maleficent noticed this happening and grinned at the thought of the death of her last enemy, the last threat of the Nobodies at least. Her distraction though, cost her dearly.

Roxas had slammed Two Become One into her staff while Riku mimicked him with Way to Dawn. She fended them off easily, but she missed hitting the third Keyblade away. Roxas' other Keyblade reached it's target, the same one as Kairi had made with Crysita: her heart.

Maleficent slumped down and said, "No matter, I will be back. Nothing can keep me away forever."

"Except for me," Sora said suddenly. He swung Savior and Sacrifice, and both light and dark came out of them. Everyone heard Maleficent scream in pain as the power swirled around her body before imploding. The power that was coming from the Keyblades, from Sora, continued to move, slamming into all of the Nobodies and Heartless and destroying them.

"Sora!" Kairi cried out as she started running towards him. The power surrounded him again, going back inside of his heart. He groaned and his eyes closed as he fell to the ground.

Kairi skidded to the ground beside him and said, "Sora?" He was still breathing though.

Mickey made his way towards them and said, "He was bestowed with a lot of power very quickly. His body will need time to adjust."

"Ummm guys?" they all heard Naminé call out slowly. All of them turned to the blonde, who was cradling Midori with a rather stunned look on her face and everyone could see why.

Instead of her waist length, green hair, her hair was only to her shoulders and raven black. Her eyes slowly opened, and Riku rushed towards her, bending over to see if she was alright.

What he saw stunned him. Her eyes seemed to be a little brighter, as if filled with something that wasn't there before, and there was a confused yet curious look plastered on her face, something that would not have been there before, even if she had been feeling them.

Midori sat up and put a hand over her heart as a huge smile appeared on her face. She laughed happily and said, "It's all there again!"

Naminé smiled as well as she and Riku helped the raven-haired girl stand up. Naminé too placed a hand over her heart and said, "I know the feeling."

"I'm whole," Midori said happily. "I'm whole Silver!"

"With black hair to boot," Riku said as he pulled at it lightly.

She smiled at him and turned to Naminé, "And you're real! Roxas? Is he?"

Naminé nodded and pointed over to where Roxas still knelt beside Sora, smiling at them. Mickey, Donald and Goofy were also there, all smiling.

Sora groaned and opened his eyes. Kairi leaned over him and said, "Sora, wake up you lazy bum."

"Gimme a break Kairi," he muttered. He slowly sat up and looked around with wonder. Suddenly, realization appeared on his face as he said, "We won."

"We won," Mickey confirmed happily.

"We won!" Sora suddenly whooped happily. He reached up and hugged Donald and Goofy tightly as he jumped up. "We did it! Woah…"

His world spun some, but Roxas and Kairi stopped him from falling.

"What now?" Donald asked.

"Do we go home the way we came?" Goofy wondered.

"It looks like the gate is still there," Midori said while looking out the giant hole in the wall Roxas had created.

Sora smiled at Kairi, having regained his balance and moved away from his brother and his girlfriend. He looked up at Kingdom Hearts in the sky, the real Kingdom Hearts, not just some artificial one created by a group of Nobodies.

He turned around and looked at Roxas seriously before saying, "This used to be our home."

"I know," Roxas said as he approached Sora.

Sora dug in his pocket and pulled out the old crown pendant and handed it to his twin, who smiled and nodded.

"We were twins, but you knew that. You were killed when mom tried to flee this place and I was injured badly. Your soul went into mine and healed me," Sora explained. "The same basic thing happened to Kairi and Naminé, but they were cousins."

"Really?" Kairi asked while looking at her former Nobody.

"Yeah," Sora said as he drew out his Keyblades again. Roxas tilted his head slightly before his appeared as well.

Everyone was silent as they watched the two nearly identical boys put the tips of the four Keyblades together and a bright light appeared where they touched. The light swirled and everyone watched as the pieces of glass that were on the floor flew into the air and rebuilt the glass heart. The heart started to glow, and hundreds of smoky streams seem to originate from it, floating into the sky.

"The children," Sora whispered in understanding. "That's their power, their energy."

"They'll be okay," Kairi said, tears building up in her eyes.

The rest of the room slowly seemed to repair itself, until it looked better than when they had first entered it.

"Let's go get the children out of those cages. They must be frightened," Mickey said as everything went silent and the magic finished its work.

"What about the ones that they didn't bring?" Namine asked.

"Gone," Midori said. "They were used too much. They're gone."

They all nodded and everyone headed towards the exit. Kairi grasped Sora's hand tightly as he hesitated, still looking up at Kingdom Hearts. He turned his gaze to her, seeing her tear eyes, and quickly pulled her close, kissing her deeply. Though Kairi's heart ached for the children that had been lost, she couldn't help but smile as he pulled back from her. She looked around and said, "I'm sure we'll see this place again."

"Yeah," Sora agreed as he allowed her to lead him out of the room. The large door closed behind them, sealing itself away until it was needed again.

**Author's Note**

Yes, I went there with the chapter title.

Hmmm…this chapter seems shorter than I remember writing it but nothing seems to be missing. I'd say that I seriously need to stop doing drugs but I don't do any in the first place so…ya know…

Also I can't discuss my real love for Deathly Hallows part 1 without taking up an extra ten pages so I won't try to. All I can say it: !

…and I'm done. Obviously in my brain I'm still ranting, but you know what I mean.

Also I love the soundtrack. Listening to scores actually helps me concentrate on my work (lyrics distract me) so I've been listening to it quite a bit.

I can't think of anything else to write. Fail at me. I blame massive amounts of work right now. Seriously, it's been messing me up. I forgot to hand in my short story so I loose points for that, which sucks because I had it done TWO WEEKS before it was due, I stayed up super late last night to do a presentation that I thought was due today and is actually due Wednesday, and I nearly slipped like 50 times going to my classes today because of all the snow.

Damn you Canada and your snow! Also damn you campus for being on a massive hill of doom. No lies, it's called Heart Attack Hill to all the students here. Even the h-core athletic ones.

Of course I can't forget my reviewers. You guys make this all worth while! So thank you to: Shifuni, Trainalf, Shire Folk, shadowwolf547, NRZWolf 13, BlackWhiteZangetsu and Chairman LoneStar.

Also it's almost December! I only have one exam on December 7th! I WIN AT LIFE!

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	47. In The End

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_Chapter Forty-Six – In The End_

Yuna sat on the edge of a large stone, staring at the people below her with a small glare. Her eyes were focused on the tanned, blond, young man talking to his friends. How she wished she were normal so that she could be with him. Tidus thought she was adorable, but admitted that she was very pretty ("For a tiny, little thing," he had added) and he too wished that she were normal at times. Though he never said that.

Paine stood a few feet behind her, frowning at the pining that she was doing.

Suddenly Rikku flew up in front of her, an excited look on her small face as she flipped in the air and said, "You'll never believe it Yunie!"

"Believe what?" Yuna asked curiously. Paine, also curious, made her was closer to the group.

"They're back," Rikku said happily, "and Sora said that he has treasure for us!"

Yuna glided up in the air and looked down at the group before. She smiled at her fellow Gullwings and quickly zipped downward.

"Tidus!" she called out happily.

The boy in question turned and looked at her while saying, "Hi Yuna."

"You'll never guess what Rikku just told me!" she said while gliding in circles around the group. She giggled as she flew over the elusive Cloud Strife's shoulder so that she was face to face with Tidus.

"What did she tell you?"

"They're back. All of them."

Everyone in the group: Leon, Aerith, Yuffie, Cloud, Tifa, Cid, Merlin, Olette, Selphie, Wakka and Tidus, all understood exactly what that meant. And before little Yuna could blink, all of them were rushing to where the Gummi Ship dock was.

**VVVVVVVVVVV**

Sora took in a deep breath as they walked through the streets of Radiant Garden. He stretched his aching limps, which screamed from pain from all the transformations that they had been through. They traveled through dozens of worlds in record breaking time, returning the children that had been taken from there. He had been a lion, a merman, a bird, a dinosaur (a triceratops, which Riku attributed to his spiky hair since Roxas was the same, but who was he to talk since his height made him a brontosaurus) and several other things. He was just glad that the armour he had under his clothes was oddly light, even though it was incredibly strong. It was a good thing, so he wasn't going to question it.

Not only were they returning children, but they were undoing the damage that Crysita, Jorix, Lilanti, Sarlio and Carverin had done. Sora's new powers proved interesting. So far they had found out that he was able to reverse the spells on the people and he was able to track people by sensing out their hearts. It came in handy a lot, but they didn't have much opposition when returning the children home and fixing the worlds. The Heartless and Nobodies seemed almost non-existent.

On top of that, they found that several worlds that had been destroyed by Maleficent. These worlds were slowly reappearing one by one, the land and the people once again appearing.

Roxas couldn't wait until Olette went back to Twilight Town where Pence and Hayner were waiting for her to get back. It seemed that fate was on their side, because there were many people who had been turned into Heartless that reappeared. Probably because of how thorough a job they were doing in destroying Heartless and Nobodies. The only way to bring a person back was to destroy both parts of them, which was probably why many people were now reuniting with their families.

Roxas walked beside Naminé, staring at the world with interest. He remembered this place from when his soul resided in Sora, but it was different really being there.

"Hiya Leon!" Goofy cried out suddenly from where he, Mickey and Donald led the group.

Their friends appeared around the corner, and Sora couldn't help but laugh and wave with his free hand while his other arm stayed around Kairi's shoulder.

The redhead laughed happily when she saw Selphie, and ran out of her boyfriend's arms to hug her friend tightly.

"Riku! Sora!" Wakka cried out happily as they approached. "How's it been?"

"Pretty good," Riku replied.

"Roxas? Naminé?" Olette said suddenly, distracting everyone to not only them, but the other quiet girl as well.

"Hey Olette," Roxas said happily.

It was Selphie who came forward and poked him in the chest, and Olette poked Sora in his arm. Both looked confused and Olette said, "I don't understand, I thought you two were the same person. How are you both here?"

"Turns out we were wrong," Roxas shrugged while resting his hands behind his head the way Sora normally did. "We were two separate people living in Sora's body. It was appropriate though, he had enough empty space in his head for about ten more souls."

Sora glared at him.

"Who are you?" Selphie asked curiously as she caught sight of one of the people she didn't know.

"Oh, I'm uh…"

Riku rolled his eyes at Midori and said, "Less confident with a full heart than half of one?"

Her brown eyes flashed angrily as she punched Riku in the arm and said, "I am not! You're the wuss Silver!"

Wakka couldn't help but laugh at them. This caused Midori to smile slightly and she looked around and said, "I'm Midori."

"Nice to meet you, and who are you?" this time Selphie's question was directed at Naminé.

"I'm Naminé," the blonde said with a small smile. "You've never seen me before, but I was like Roxas. The only difference is that where as Roxas lived in Sora, I lived inside of Kairi. Oh, and we're cousins, not twins."

"Inside of her, huh?" Tidus asked, wriggling his eyebrows at the innuendo. Sora glared at Tidus, who shrunk away from him.

"What about Hayner?" Olette asked suddenly. "And what about Pence? Are they okay?"

"They're back in Twilight Town already," Sora assured her. "They're fine and they can't wait to see you again." In reply to this, Olette smiled broadly, wiping a few tears of happiness away from her dark green eyes.

"So you saved the universe again," Leon said with a small smile.

"I knew you could do it!" Yuffie cried out happily. "Squall here was getting a little doubtful though."

"My name is Leon."

"Squally-Squall," Yuffie said in a singsong voice.

"Are you all okay?" Aerith said as she came closer to them, inspecting all of them. "Are you hurt anywhere?"

"No, we're alright," Mickey replied. "We healed up all the major injuries early on."

"What happened exactly?" Cid asked curiously. "Disney Castle got a hold of us and believe me, Queenie was awfully worried and a little angry."

"Gone for such a long time without any word or any sort of tracking or any sign that you were alive? Who can blame her?" Merlin questioned rhetorically.

"Well, we were going to uninhabited worlds," Midori said with a shrug. "So no one would have seen us to report us."

"Donald drove us into a meteor shower," Sora answered. "Banged the gummi ship up pretty damn bad. Lost the warp gummi, the communication gummi, the tracking gummi and some other things." Cid's glare at the duck was enough for all of them to know what he thought.

"They're gone now," Kairi said. "Them and Maleficent. They're gone for good."

"Are you two alright?" Aerith asked them specifically. "You've been gone so long."

Sora frowned and wrapped his arms protectively around Kairi. She smiled sadly at Aerith before looking up at him, staring directly into his eyes. Her smile became a little less sad and a little more honest as she said, "I'm fine now. I'm fine."

Sora studied her face, knowing what she was referring to. He sighed and hugged her closer. He knew that she wouldn't be fine with the memories, but as long as she was okay in at that moment, that's what mattered.

"What happened?" Tifa asked, directing the question at Riku instead of at Sora and Kairi. "Did you kick their sorry a—"

"Yes, we did," Riku said, quickly cutting her off as some children ran past.

"We should head back to Merlin's house," Cloud said suddenly. "They can tell us the entire story there."

"Selling my home are we?" Merlin asked.

"Well, it can hold the most people," Aerith pointed out.

"Yes, yes. I will meet you there." With that, Merlin vanished in a poof of blue smoke and sparks.

**VVVVVVVVVVV**

"So, Sora's got, like, super powers now?" Selphie asked from where she sat on a couch that Merlin had conjured.

"Pretty much," Kairi answered. "But he doesn't know how to use them yet."

"And you and Roxas were actually twins all along?"

"Yup," Sora and Roxas said together.

"And Kairi, you and Naminé are cousins?"

Naminé nodded.

"Wow."

"So what now?" Tidus asked.

"The worlds are slowly repairing themselves," Sora explained. "A few major ones have reappeared already, like Twilight Town."

"What about home?" Wakka asked. "Will it be there?"

"We're hoping," Riku answered.

Mickey cleared his throat, causing everyone to look at him. The mouse looked at the floor sadly before saying, "As much as I hate to break up this reunion, we don't know how long the worlds will stay connected."

"We need to get home before the gateways are sealed off," Sora said. "But that means…"

"We'll take Olette back to Twilight Town," Mickey said. "It's the last place we need to drop people off. Sora, you can bring up a corridor of light to travel through, right?"

"Yeah," he answered with a nod.

Olette made a bit of an odd face before she turned to Roxas and asked, "Are you coming back to Twilight Town?"

"What?" he asked, startled by the question.

"Well, it's just that you said that Twilight Town was your home. It was where your good memories were."

Roxas blinked. He hadn't even taken into consideration where he was going to go. Twilight Town had always felt like home to him, but he actually had family members now, even if it was only his brother since it was revealed that their mother actually was dead now. He turned and glanced at Sora.

Sora, it seemed, hadn't predicted this either. He looked at the ground and said, "You can go if you want. I know it's just more than the memories of Hayner, Pence and Olette that would bring you there."

"I—"

"It'll be weird without you, because you were always there since I got home, but we'll see each other again," Sora said, but those close to him heard the strain in his voice. "Everything will be fine."

Naminé looked and Roxas, then at the floor and said, "I never really had a place where I felt at home that I remember. I don't remember being a small child here. First I was held in the Castle that Never Was, and then Castle Oblivion, then the mansion in Twilight Town, and then the Castle That Never Was again. The only thing I've had that's constant was when I was with Kairi, and you know what? I think I still need that constant. I'm going to Destiny Islands."

Roxas gulped and stared at her.

"You coming too Midi?" Riku asked.

"Well I…maybe…"

"You should go as soon as possible," Merlin said. "It's not that we want to get rid of you, but the worlds will be closing up sooner rather than later. I'll go round up all those children you brought with you" He vanished with a poof of magic, reappearing several minutes later with some very confused children.

"Let's see if those new powers makes it even easier on you Sora," Kairi whispered to him as she kissed his cheek.

He summoned on his Savior Keyblade, knowing that while he wanted to show off both of his impressive weapons, he also didn't want to be called a show off by Riku and his brother. He pointed his Keyblade in front of him, and a glowing, pearl-white portal opened in front of them.

"We'll meet again," Cloud said. Everyone else nodded.

"Come on," Riku said suddenly and hauled a reluctant Midori through the portal, ignoring what she was trying to say.

Selphie waved at everyone that she had become accustom to (there were tears when she said goodbye to Yuffie) and she and Wakka led the young children through the portal, telling them that they were going home. Yuna came up and gave Tidus a small hug before flying away and watching him leave.

"Goodbye," Naminé whispered suddenly, and before Roxas could stop her she rushed through the portal. Kairi sent a worried look after her cousin and Sora encouraged her with a nudge to go after her. Kairi nodded and ran through the portal.

"I don't want to rush you Rox," Sorra said to his brother, "but it's now or never. I know it's not fair that you have to choose where you want to go but—well—whatever happens you're still my brother." He snorted with amusement and added, "My little brother."

Roxas smiled at his words and turned to look at Olette. He sighed and said, "I'm sorry but, I can't go to Twilight Town. My home is with my brother…my home is with Naminé. I had a lot of good memories in Twilight Town with who I thought was you, but in the end they were just fake. And Axel, I had some good times there with him too, but it's all in the past. I have to let it go and look to where I belong now. I'm sorry."

"It's alright," Olette said with a smile. "Besides, it's like Sora said, we'll all meet again."

Roxas smiled and nodded his head.

"I guess this is goodbye again," Sora said to Donald and Goofy.

"Gawrsh, no it's not Sora," Goofy said.

"It's only see ya later," Donald agreed.

"They're right," Mickey said. "I have no doubt that we'll meet again. Who knows, now that Twilight's Destiny has been discovered and a living person has the power again, it might all come back together one day and Twilight Town and Destiny Islands will be one again."

Sora nodded and hugged his friends tightly. He and Roxas walked towards the portal, Roxas looking forward and Sora looking back.

He watched as all his friends faded from view and into nothingness.

**Author's Note**

Next up: Epilogue!

Yes, the next chapter is the last one. I want to thank everyone who read and reviewed this fic! I really do appreciate it! At first, I wasn't sure if I should keep writing this, but I'm glad I did. Though this one has way more chapters and far less reviews than the original, I am extremely happy with how this one turned out.

This turned out a hell of a lot different than I originally planned. Originally I had a few extra chapters but everything else stayed the same, but then I got writing and my ideas kept changing. I'm glad they did though. I had to consider the sequel, but I wasn't limited by it. That's why the sequel is turning out even more different from it's original than this one did. And to think, I originally had only a few changes in mind for Shadows of Reality: Final Mix.

That's one piece of advice that everyone should follow! You may have an ending in mind, and keep it in mind, but don't try to force your story to suit the ending. As you go, especially in big fics and original works, half the time plots, settings and characters develop in ways that were unexpected and if you keep the originally ending without giving it room to change with everything else, then it feels out of place. The best example I can give of that is the Harry Potter series. That's also a piece of advice that comes from Stephen King, so it's not just me rambling!

As people who have read my fics before know, I won't be writing any author's notes in the next chapter. I never do with final chapters. I guess it's because I like to end things with the ending and nothing else. So I hope you liked this! I'll be uploading the Epilogue soon, but after that I may take a few weeks off from updating to try and focus on a few other things. I'm done school early this year for Christmas though, so I'll have plenty of time after December 10th.

Thanks to everyone! You guys really are the greatest! I'll definitely reply to any reviews and answer any questions that you may have. Some things (obviously) I'll be kind of cryptic about, but I'm sure some people must have questions about things that happened in this one.

So thank you to all the great people who reviewed! You guys seriously kept me going when I thought that writing this was just a waste of time! Shadowwolf46, Kingdommad, Anon, NRZWolf 13, BlackWhiteZangetsu, The Mage of the Shadows, Shifuni and Chairman LoneStar!

So stay tuned for the Epilogue! And after that stayed tuned to either the sequel, Shadows of Reality: Final Mix, OR the prequel, Shadows of Sleep: Final Mix (Originally titled Shadows of Beginnings but I wanted to tie the title in to both Dreams and Birth By Sleep). I'm not sure which one I'm going to post first.

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


	48. Epilogue

**Shadows of a Dream: Final Mix**

_**Epilogue **_

The smell of the sea assaulted Sora's senses as they appeared on Destiny Islands. He hadn't opened his eyes yet, but he knew from the smell, the feel of the sand under his shoes, the sound of the waves, and the calming breeze that he was home. He heard someone walk close to him, and he felt that person place their warm hands on his cheeks. His eyes opened and he stared into Kairi's own indigo ones. He smiled warmly at her, resting his hands on the curves of her hips and just staring at her.

Kairi lowered her hands and move close to him, resting her head on his chest while his hands went around to the small of her back. As he hugged her close, he took the time to look around. The last time he had been on Destiny Islands it had been a dead, decaying world, but now it was home again. It was fully of life. It was exactly how he remembered it. At the same time though, something about it seemed a little smaller than before.

Maybe it was the fact that Sora knew there was so much more out there, or maybe it was the knowledge that this wouldn't be the last time he left the islands, or maybe it was the fact that these islands used to make up Twilight's Destiny, along with Twilight Town and those five other uninhabited worlds, but whatever it was he decided to ignore it for now.

"We're home," Kairi said loud enough for everyone else to hear.

Sora leaned his head close to her ear and whispered to her alone, "I didn't need to come back to the islands to be home."

She frowned lightly and turned around so that the back of her head was leaning on his chest while looking up at the dark sky, "That's right, you're one of two Princes from Twilight's Destiny. Any of those other worlds or even Twilight Town could be your home too."

Sora laughed and said, "You're a Princess from Radiant Garden too, remember. That's not what I meant anyway. I meant as long as I'm with you, I'm home."

She smiled warmly and said, "You are such a sap."

He shook his head and turned slightly as Roxas took a deep breath and said, "It's odd, being here and being my own person."

"I know," Naminé agreed while kneeling onto the soft white sand, picking up a handful and letting it strain through her fingers, enjoying the feel of the soft minerals. "I felt everything Kairi did while I was within her, but to feel it on my own…"

"It's different," Roxas agreed while nodding his head. He knelt down next to her, wrapping an arm around her comfortingly.

"What do you think Midori?" Riku asked his friend while placing a hand on her shoulder.

She glanced at him with her deep brown eyes before looking up at the sky and saying, "It's beautiful but I—well I'm just used to bigger cities. I'm not a fan of heat and you know I'm not all that thrilled with water. I'm sure it'll grow on me eventually, but I still have a problem."

"Oh?" the silver-haired young man asked.

"Yeah, I don't have any place to live," Midori said while rolling her eyes. "You dragged me through the portal before I could point at out to you Silver."

"That is a problem," Naminé agreed quickly, "and it goes for us too." She motioned to herself and Roxas.

"Don't be silly," Kairi said with a frown, "you're staying with me Nami. You are my cousin after all."

"And Roxas, you're stuck with me bro," Sora said with a grin.

"Where are we supposed to go brother dearest?" Roxas said sarcastically. "The house is still there, but if you remember correctly, neither of us are legal adults for another year and, well, your mom…our mom is…you know."

"That's a good point," Naminé said quickly. "What about Riku and Kairi's parents? How do we know they're here?"

"I guess we'll go and look," Selphie piped up. She, Wakka and Tidus had gathered together the children a little ways away, leaving the other six to their own devices until now. "We'll let you know if anything comes up. Besides, we have to get those kids back to their parents soon. They probably think that they're dead."

Sora nodded and they watched as Wakka and Tidus helped load the children into the boats that had been left on the beach. It was only after they were out of sight that Naminé asked, "How are we getting back over?"

"Sora can get us over," Kairi said. He looked down at her curiously, and she sighed while nudging him and saying, "Light portal? As long as you've been there or have a connection to a person in the location you want to go to you can get there."

"Oh, right," he replied sheepishly.

"That's nice and all," Midori said, crossing her arms in front of her and glaring, "but not only do I have nowhere to go, but Sora and Roxas are alone and underage. They'd need at least someone who is legally an adult to live with them."

"No one will bother them really," Riku said with a shrug. "There's no much for policing here on Destiny Islands. At least not on this specific island."

Roxas suddenly snapped his fingers and said, "That's it!"

"What's it?" the green-haired girl asked.

Sora stared at his Nobody ("Brother," he quickly reminded himself) before grinning and saying, "That's a great idea!"

"What's a great idea?" Kairi asked while looking up at him.

"Roxas' idea."

"He didn't say anything," Midori said with confusion.

"They're not normal brothers Midori," Naminé piped up. "Roxas' soul lived in Sora's virtually all their lives and was only released for a little while when they were fourteen to fifteen and then went back, but was still aware of his own existence. Their minds are connected and they can hear each other's thoughts and speak to one another in their heads, like when they shared one body. It's the same with Kairi and I, but their bond is a little stronger."

"I can't feel Crysita," Midori replied with a frown.

"You wouldn't. Most people wouldn't feel their Nobody, or even know about them. Given that Crysita wasn't even a Nobody, she wouldn't be there anymore," Roxas said. "Most Nobodies fade back into darkness when they become whole. Naminé and I were different. After Kairi technically killed Crysita, what was left went back into you to make you whole again, but she doesn't actually exist anymore herself."

"I'll take your world for that Roxy, but would either you or Sky over there tell me what your idea is?"

"Well we can't live on our own for a little under a year-" Roxas started.

"-And you don't have a place to live-" Sora continued.

"-And we have an entire house to our selves now-" Roxas added, not missing a beat.

"So, since you're legal age why don't you stay with us?" the two boys spoke together in perfect sync.

Everyone stared at them before Riku said, "That's actually a good idea."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sora and Roxas echoed angrily.

"Drop it," Kairi said while patting Sora's cheek and Naminé leaned her forehead on Roxas' shoulder.

"Well Midi?" Sora asked after a few moments of silence.

She stared at the younger boys before smiling and saying, "Alright. The only condition I have is, everyone cleans their own rooms."

"Deal," Roxas said quickly.

"That and Roxas doesn't go near the stove."

"Hey!" he whined as everyone laughed. "So I blew up a couple things! Axel, the pyro-maniac, was my best friend! I wonder where he is now…"

"I'm sure he's fine," Naminé answered.

"It wouldn't be bad if you didn't blow up half of a castle only after a few minutes of having your own body," Sora said with a laugh.

"Sora, Roxas isn't allowed near the stove? And we all take turns doing laundry?" Midori said in a business-like manner.

"Deal," Sora said, repeated the same tone that Roxas had used earlier.

"Alright then," she smiled widely. "Looks like you two now have a big sister."

"Can we call you Sissy?"

Twilight appeared in Midori's hand and she glared at the two boys before saying, "If you do you'll both lose some very vital body parts."

Sora shifted so that Kairi was blocking the majority of his body from the 19-year-old and Roxas winced.

"Oh yeah, you'll stab yourself for me," Kairi said sarcastically, "but when Midi threatens you, you willingly throw me between you and her Keyblade. Where's the love?"

"I do love you Iri," he said seriously, "but I do not want her cutting anything off of me."

Riku snorted with laughter at his friends before turning and looking at the ocean. His eyes gazed over the sky, glad to see that it was filled to the brim with stars again. Before, the sky had looked almost like a thick layer of ink with the occasional twinkling star in it.

It was late at night on this world, most likely after midnight, judging from how there were few lights lit on the main island across from their play island. He wondered if his father was still there and okay. The man was tough, that much Riku knew, but he still worried. His mind wandered to his mother who lived on another island with her new husband and wondered if she was alright too. He would have to call later to make sure.

He glanced over at his friends. All of them had scars now. Some deeper than others, but they still all had them. To see everyone smiling and happy again was enough to make Riku smile again. Still, so many people had been hurt in the pursuit of one person's greed. He couldn't help but shake off the feeling that it wasn't over. Not yet at least. He wasn't going to say anything about it though. Everyone was in too much of a good mood.

Sora and Kairi sat on the ground beside each other, Kairi toying with a shell that she had just picked up. Roxas and Naminé were only a little bit away from them, staring at the sky in awe, and Midori sat next to Riku silently, watching the waves lap at the shore.

Sora looked up at the sky and said, "One of these days Iri, I'll take you around to all the worlds without needing to fight. I'll properly teach you how to fly in Neverland, and we'll go back to Christmas Town and play in the snow again." Their last time in Christmas Town hadn't been the best memory to leave a place with, so he wanted her to remember the good times they had there, not the bad ones.

"We'll see everyone again," she added, "including all of those little children we saved. They were all so cute."

"I'm not much of a kid person," Midori admitted after a moment of silence. "Maybe, one day, I might have one."

"Who needs more than one?" Riku asked.

"I'm glad you agree," she said with a nod. "Although I plan on being older. There's still too much to do to be held down by a family."

Roxas laughed but nodded all the same.

Kairi huffed and said, "I don't know about you, but I want a family young. I don't want to be one of those old hags that their kids are embarrassed of later on in life. The earlier the better, well not too early like fifteen or anything."

Riku snickered and said, "She wants kids Sora, you better get right on that."

Sora's face turned about fifty different shades of red as everyone laughed at him. He tried to snap back but he couldn't seem form a coherent sentence.

Kairi patted his cheek and said, "Ignore them. You're only seventeen, and I'm still sixteen. That's too early."

"Way to suck out the fun Kairi," Midori muttered.

"What about 18?" Roxas asked jokingly, grinning at his brother's glare.

"Oh, that's a completely different story," Kairi said with a serious tone, but a wicked grin that Sora couldn't see crossed her face. "Once I turn 18, since my birthday's after yours and Sora's, everything is a go."

Sora's face turned a deeper shade of red if that were possible. He groaned and hid his face in her long hair, his skin almost blending in with the shade perfectly.

"Well," Naminé said playfully. "Isn't there a tradition of people marrying at a really young age in royal families? You are a Prince and Princess after all."

Kairi blushed as well at this before saying, "Then that means you and Roxas are getting hitched soon, right? Mickey told me that our mothers were the Princesses of Radiant Garden, and though my father and mother became the King and Queen, you technically are royalty as well. A Princess, if I'm not mistaken."

They both blushed deeply but soon everyone was laughing hysterically. Naminé blushed, crossed her arms and said, "Whatever, you'll be the one with a billion children before you're 25. Besides, I'm waiting for marriage so there's no way it'll be me first."

"Sucks to be you," Sora whispered to Roxas, who hit him back.

"It's good to joke around again," Riku said after they calmed down.

Sora looked up from Kairi's head where he had been laughing into her hair and said, "Yeah it really is." He rolled onto his back, and Kairi shifted so that she was lying with her head on his chest, looking up at the starry sky with him.

"Sora?" she asked softly so that no one else could hear them.

"Yeah?"

She leaned up close to him and whispered directly into his ear, "I still find the clothes and the armour insanely hot. Now that we're home, not in a gummi ship or anywhere else, nothing's stopping us from playing Knight and Damsel in Distress."

"What?" he asked her, his eyebrows narrowing with confusion. She just giggled, and his cheeks burned red as he understood what she was talking about.

Beside them, Roxas and Naminé were pointing out different constellations, oblivious to Sora and Kairi's conversation, and Riku and Midori were discussing different things that she could do while on the islands. It was a silent agreement that they'd stay on the beach for the rest of the night.

Soon Naminé was curled up next to Roxas, Midori was fast asleep while pretty much keeping Riku in a bone crushing hug (he didn't seem to mind though, even in his sleep) and Sora was lying with Kairi mostly on top of him.

She looked up, grinning and kissed his lips. He returned the kiss and after a few moments they broke it and simply lay back, enjoying each other's company.

"So, Sora," Roxas said. "How are we going to explain me to everyone?"

"No one here knows dad, actually no one remembers him at all. I'm thinking that the memories were erased or something like that," Sora said with a shrug. "So we can just tell everyone you were with him since they don't know he died when we were babies. Naminé and Midori don't really need stories but—"

"No, no," his twin said while shaking his head. "I mean how do we explain me, Roxas, to someone like Mr. Gates? I was supposed to be your alter-ego to them, remember?"

"Oh right," Sora said with a frown, remembering the day nearly a year ago now when his mother and guidance counselor thought he was insane. "We'll just tell him that you always existed and were always here. Most people don't like him, so I'm sure we could get other people to play along. Make him think he's the crazy one."

"Awesome," Roxas replied, sounding very satisfied with the answer.

"So, Sora," Kairi said, in the same tone of voice Roxas had.

"So Sora what?" he asked as his tired eyes started to close.

"Do you actually plan on going to school now?"

Laughter erupted from Roxas, startling Naminé awake. The laughter caused Riku to wake up and simply glare while Midori blinked with confusion.

"You're all nuts," she muttered before falling back asleep.

Sora sighed and said, "Sleep now."

"But you didn't answer my question."

It was too late; the exhausted Sora was already out like a like.

Kairi smiled at him and whispered, "Some things will never change." Slowly she fell asleep, loving the feeling of being safe at home with all of her friends safe and sound.

"**I wanted to meet you."**

"_I'll be waiting."_

"**It's always closer than it seems."**

"_I'm always with you too. I'll come back to you, I promise._

**"This is real…"**

At least for now.

_**The End**_

_**Krystal Lily Potter**_


End file.
